


Sidelines

by seungsols



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Friendship, Friendship Is The Best Ship, Gen, M/M, Music, OT4, Platonic Relationships, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, its side cheolsoo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-13 13:43:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 46,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14749970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seungsols/pseuds/seungsols
Summary: They isolated themselves from the world until music brought them together.I wish somebody made guidelines on how to get up off the sidelines.





	Sidelines

**Author's Note:**

> In no way does this romanticize trauma or PTSD. While this is only a piece of fiction, it deals with a real subject. As someone who has PTSD, I feel it was something I should bring attention to in my writing. Though the past may pull us back, it is always possible to keep moving forward, especially with such a supportive group of loved ones. I hope that if you have PTSD like me, you'll see that there's more to your life than your past. If you know someone with PTSD, I hope you will be able to help support them throughout their life, even with small actions. And if this is your first time hearing or learning about PTSD, I encourage you to learn more rather than push the subject under the rug. Because with learning comes understanding, with understanding comes compassion, and with compassion comes healing and hope. 

******I.**

 

His earphones drowned out his surroundings. Wonwoo had his head hanging low with one hand in his pocket and the other scrolling through his social media feed. His environment was quieter than usual. It was getting pretty late and not many people were around, so there wasn't any pushing or shoving. 

It would be another two minutes before the next train would arrive so Wonwoo had time to kill. He grimaced when he saw a few familiar faces on the feed. “I thought I unfollowed him.” He quickly went to the profile and blocked the guy before he went back to scrolling.

It was a minute estimate on the board when Wonwoo was interrupted by a call. He was pulled back to reality and sighed as he picked it up, turning on the microphone on his earphone cord. “I'm on my way back, Soon.”

“Okay, that's good. Can you pick up bananas before you come back to the apartment?”

Groaning and rolling his eyes, Wonwoo agreed. “Yeah, yeah. Is that all you called me for?” He anxiously looked to see that the train would soon arrive according to the board.

“How'd your interview go? The suit was impressive, right?”

Wonwoo subconsciously loosened the tie around his neck and sighed in relief before replying. “I guess,” he shrugged. “I don't think I'll get it.”

“Hey,” Soonyoung pouted. “Don't say that. You don't know that.”

“I do,” Wonwoo sighed again. He heard the train whistle as more people headed down the stairs to the doors. It was a relief. “Look, the train is here. I'll just see you when I get back, okay?” He hung up after they both said their goodbyes, right as the train doors opened. 

He filed in, relieved to find an available seat as the crowd moved inward. The train began moving after the doors were closed and the people were settled down. Wonwoo observed from his seat how everyone either looked so tired that they'd pass out any second or so alert as they looked on their phones.

He stood up to offer the elder lady he saw wandering for a seat from the opposite end. She smiled and patted his arm before sitting down comfortably. Wonwoo smiled and gripped onto the handle above, joining half of the crowd as he looked at his phone as well.

Getting off his stop, he walked out of the station and walked up the stairs nonchalantly. The sun had set already, but the sky still provided some light. It was brighter than usual. Wonwoo smiled a bit at the scene. He made it to the convenience store just two blocks down from the apartment. After greeting the cashier, he made his way to the fruits and grabbed a bunch of bananas. He figured he would stock up on more food so he walked the aisles, skimming around.

Wonwoo grabbed one carton of almond milk, grumbling as he remembered Soonyoung had drank it all last week despite claiming it didn't taste good. He went to the cashier with the two items, plus a bag of chips. As the cashier was scanning, Wonwoo looked over the cashier. “Can I have a pack?”

He blinked at Wonwoo as Wonwoo tapped his card on the counter to a beat. “Which one?” 

“Any.”

The cashier turned and grabbed the one directly behind him and scanned it before putting it in the plastic bag. He took Wonwoo’s card and scanned it. “You don't normally get a pack when you come here.”

“You don't normally question my purchases.” The cashier rolled his eyes and handed the bag over, wishing Wonwoo to have a good evening. 

Reiterating it back, Wonwoo headed to the apartment. He pulled the neck tie down and pulled it over his neck to take it off, shoving it into the bag. Somewhat aggressively. Ruffling his hair, he entered the building and walked towards the elevator corridor. He looked down at his shoes and grimaced at how they definitely weren't his style. Too formal, not enough function. 

Nothing of the outfit was his anyway. All of it belonged to Soonyoung. Wonwoo didn't even want to borrow his roommates attire for the interview. He didn't want to attend the interview or apply for the job in the first place. He couldn't deal with another rejection. Wonwoo didn't want that experience after his countless previous attempts. But Soonyoung encouraged him anyway and Wonwoo was never the type to say no.

The elevator opened and he walked in pressing the button for the third floor. He leaned back against the railing adjacent to the door and sighed, running his hands over his face.

“Hold the door!” a voice cried out.

Wonwoo quickly straightened up immediately. He held his arm out to keep the door from shutting as another guy ran in, helplessly out of breath. He seemed familiar, probably because Wonwoo and him live in the same building. “Floor?” 

“What?” the guy heaved as he was standing facing downward with his hands on his knees. Wonwoo looked at the guy whose cheeks were red, eyes have obviously been crying, and hair was disheveled more than his own.

“What floor do you live on?” Wonwoo clarified by lengthening his question.

“Fifth.” The guy was clearly in a rush to get home, Wonwoo thought as he pressed the button. Wonwoo was surprised to see the guy catch his breath so quickly as he stood up straight in no time, leaning on the opposite wall. 

The elevator ride seemed slower than usual, but Wonwoo didn't mind. In fact, he had his earphones out and his phone in his pocket. Rather than focusing on his handheld digital world, he paid attention to his surroundings. There was a soft instrumental playing as background music, something he appreciated every time he came home. He nodded his head to the rhythm, a smooth one, and tapped his foot to the beat. Looking up, it seemed like the other occupant was doing the same as well. They caught glances of each other and shared a small smile for a moment.

It was the third floor ding that pulled Wonwoo out of the trance. He reached into his pocket to pull his keys out as him and the stranger shared a bow and an evening adieu before Wonwoo headed out and the elevator closed behind him. 

He hummed the tune he heard in the elevator before he opened the door to his apartment, sighing in relief that his roommate was cleaning the dishes. Wonwoo came into the kitchen and put the bag on the counter. “I got you those chips you like too. Also, next time, please don't drink my milk… especially after you insulted it.”

“Almond milk is surprisingly good!” Soonyoung whined but smiled when he saw the food in the bag. He was about to make small talk with Wonwoo when he realized the other was already walking to his room. He sighed sadly. He began putting the groceries away and was shocked to find the box of cigarettes. Soonyoung pouted. “I thought he was trying to quit.” He cleaned up and dropped the box in a drawer that was filled with older, unused cigarette boxes.

He wasn't sure why Wonwoo habitually bought them, especially since he promised to quit after the incident. Returning to his room, he passed by Wonwoo’s and slowed his pace. Peaking in within the timeframe, he saw Wonwoo lying down still fully dressed. He heard the snoring and Soonyoung broke out with a gentle grin. He closed Wonwoo’s door silently before completely walking away.

Soonyoung realized how tough it is for Wonwoo to get a job, but he knows Wonwoo wants a job. Because they both know that a job to Wonwoo meant more than just splitting the cost of their apartment. It meant a new beginning. It meant that Wonwoo could feel like he's contributing to groceries and nights out. And most importantly, it meant another chance.

 

—

**II.**   
  


“Why are you so dressed up anyway?” Jihoon asked as he nudged Seungcheol. “All we're doing is getting take-out.” He noticed how his older friend seemed to not mind the fact that he was wearing a button up and slacks compared to Jihoon in his hoodie and sweats.

“I have a date,” Seungcheol hummed. Jihoon could tell there was a bit of excitement in that tone. “Supposed to meet up with them later on in Itaewon.”

“Whoa,” Jihoon whistled. “Foreigner?” 

Seungcheol shook his head. “When we were texting, he said he grew up here but moved to America when he was older. Came back here after he graduated college.”

“Wait… you met him on a dating site?” Seungcheol looked at Jihoon and silently nodded. “I thought you—”

“I gave it another chance,” Seungcheol quietly replied. The rest of the walk to the restaurant was silent between the two friends. Seungcheol knew Jihoon wanted to say more but he was too nice to say anything else. Jihoon knew Seungcheol wanted to defend himself or would feel bad if he said anything, so Jihoon decided to stay quiet.

They arrived at the restaurant as Jihoon said their order number. The worker walked to the back to get their order as the two sat down in the makeshift waiting area with a few chairs and a plant display. “Pretty,” Jihoon commented. It was an attempt to change the subject for a new conversation but Seungcheol seemed to be in his own world. Jihoon noticed Seungcheol was looking at the ground humming to the music playing in the restaurant’s background. He sighed to himself and smiled when the worker came back with their order. “Thank you,” Jihoon grinned politely. 

They both walked out, with a silence that still stood in between them. Jihoon pouted at Seungcheol when he glanced over. “What?”

“Nothing,” Jihoon shook his head. “I just… Hyung, I’m happy for you but I don’t want you to push yourself too much.” They continued walking through the awkward atmosphere. The fact that Seungcheol was going on a date didn’t surprise Jihoon, he knew how much his friend wanted to get back into the dating scene. However, little did Seungcheol know, that Jihoon knew more than Seungcheol has told about his past experiences when it came to relationships. Jihoon just didn’t want to see his friend get hurt again.

“Hey, Jihoon?” Seungcheol asked. Jihoon looked over at his friend who shook his head. “I… know you’re protecting me but, I would like to at least give new people a chance. I shouldn’t throw my past expectations on them. And neither should you.”

A bit surprised by such a comment, Jihoon just slowly nodded in agreement. “Alright. It’s tonight, right?”

“Yeah, so after we eat I’m just going to head straight to the subway to Itaewon. You’ll be okay in the apartment by yourself?”

They turned the corner as Seungcheol pulled out his keys as Jihoon snickered, seeing how the atmosphere seemed to have lit up. “Do  _ you _ trust me with your apartment?” They both laughed as they went through the entrance door and went to the elevator. Even if they didn’t room together anymore, Jihoon was glad he was able to come often as much as he does to his best friend’s place. Despite living an hour away from each other, he was grateful that they still meet up often.

The elevator door opened and the two moved to either side of the elevator as a taller resident stepped out of the elevator, wearing a suit and tie with a briefcase. Jihoon’s eyes followed the stranger before Seungcheol whistled from the elevator to enter. Jihoon quickly stepped in, lifting the bag of food upward as his hands rested underneath it for support. “I thought you lived on the fifth floor?”

Seungcheol turned to his friend as he was swaying to the elevator music while the door closed. “Huh? I do.” Jihoon pointed to the elevator buttons to show that floor four and five were lit up. “Oh, that might have been the other guy. Probably pressed the fourth floor by accident.” 

Jihoon snickered a bit. “How do you press a single button by accident? And he’s pretty tall, it’s not like he leaned against the back of the buttons to press just one button.”

Shrugging, Seungcheol whistled along to the melody of the background music. “Then beats me. Now that you mention it, I haven’t really seen that guy here before. Maybe he’s new here.” Jihoon nodded as they both headed out when the elevator door opened to the fifth floor. They went inside of the apartment after Seungcheol unlocked the door and Jihoon hurried to set the food down on the kitchen countertop. “Why are you in a hurry?” Seungcheol laughed.

“I know you don’t know what it’s like to carry hot food almost twenty blocks from a restaurant,” Jihoon scrunched his nose as he went to the sink to wash his hands, “but it’s a hell of an exercise for your hands and arms.” 

Seungcheol scrunched his nose back at his friend before he went to his room to grab his phone charger to make sure he had enough batteries before his date. Jihoon sighed to himself once more. He was happy for Seungcheol and he does trust his friend’s instincts when it comes to people. He just didn’t know how to trust other people after Seungcheol’s previous relationship.

 

—

 

**III.**

 

Mingyu came back to his cubicle directly after the meeting. Sitting down in his rolling chair, he slid back to his desk and right in front of his laptop screen. He saw his own reflection in the black monitor before he moved the mouse to see his log-in screen. Oh, how badly Mingyu wanted to toss the computer out of the window that stood high next to him as its own complete wall.

After typing out his password, he sighed at the sight of the spreadsheets. He pulled out the papers and notes from the meeting and placed it neatly onto his desk. Mingyu wanted to fling these outside the window as well, but he knew that would neither be good for him nor the environment. His eyes kept gazing over his right shoulder and away from the monitor to the cityscape that surrounded his building. He's on a pretty high floor—the twenty-second, in fact— so he could see everything the city offered. However, Mingyu tried not to look down at the restaurants or cafes. It was just a grim reminder of what  _ could _ have been his current career.

Accounting was not his passion nor his dream job, and Mingyu was fully aware of this going into the job interview. He hoped that he would not get the position, but his damn professor recommendations and experience with bills and taxes from small eateries made him a suitable candidate. His parents were especially proud of their son, mostly because of how difficult it was for him to even look for a job after the incident two years ago.

He quickly looked up when a piece of crumpled paper was thrown at him. Mingyu groaned before hearing a snicker. Seokmin was leaning over the border between their cubicles. “Thinking about lunch, already?” Seokmin tried to crack a joke. He forced out a faint chuckle as Mingyu scrunched his nose and went back to typing at his computer. “How was the meeting?”

“Boss said she wanted us to bring our laptops home this weekend. Supposed to snow quite a bit.” Seokmin whistled as Mingyu rolled his eyes in agreement. “Yeah, but she said we can leave early today. Can't complain about that.”

“Oh, that’s pretty nice,” Seokmin smiled, seeing how Mingyu seemed to lighten up. “Marketing isn't lenient when it comes to work schedules… maybe I should switch to the accounting team, huh?” He grinned wider when Mingyu snickered at the thought. Seokmin always enjoyed cracking jokes, especially if they made his friend—and cubicle neighbor—laugh.  “Hao said he can meet us for lunch, you in?” Seokmin offered before pouting when he saw the lunchbox near Mingyu’s messenger bag. “Oh, you packed again?”

“Y-yeah…” Mingyu looked up from his screen. He pulled his lunch closer to him and opened the lid to quickly show Seokmin before closing it (their floor had too many ‘pungent lunch’ warnings). “Just some tonkatsu…”

Seokmin whistled. “And you cooked it?” Mingyu hesitated before nodding as Seokmin hummed, pulling back from the boundary that divided them. “Well, that's good. Probably more practical than spending money every lunch break, huh? Maybe you can join us next week.” Mingyu smiled hesitantly before Seokmin sat back down at his desk.

Mingyu sighed in relief. Truthfully, he didn't cook his lunch. He hasn't cooked any of his meals for the past few years. Because he didn't live with his parents anymore, because he'd feel like a burden asking them to make him food, he's been buying his meals at the convenience store. He usually has his meals there as well. Mingyu liked to cook, he liked to bake, and he liked making his own food and sharing it with people. He truly believed that food was powerful, but he hasn't been able to touch a stove in years. He hasn't been able to even calmly walk by the stove in his own apartment ever since he moved in.

 

It wasn’t long before Mingyu was cleaning his desk and shutting his computer down. Seokmin and Minghao were already on their way home since they lived on the opposite side of town and needed to beat rush hour, so Mingyu usually walked home by himself. It would be more practical to take the subway rather than go by foot as it took less time, but Mingyu liked taking his time. And as much as he didn’t want to have any grim reminder about the incident years prior, he couldn’t help but be drawn to local bakeries and cafes he passed on his way home. 

He slowed his pace every time he passed one of the eateries and glanced in. Mingyu smiled at the sight of people talking and laughing at the tables while eating and sharing a meal together. It was a nice sight to see and it brought back many memories, good and bad. He shook out of it but smiled politely and shook his hand to decline the offer when one of the hostesses came out and asked if he wanted to see the menu. They shared a polite bow as Mingyu continued walking. 

He remembered that feeling, seeing his friends convince people to come into their bakery and try out one of his new pastry creations. Mingyu always imagined bringing that experience when he moved into the city. Sadly, however, he knew he was too afraid to do so. He turned the corner as he was five blocks away from his apartment when he heard a music roaring from one of the cafes. It was a new and different cafe; different in the sense that it was mostly outdoors and inside was where the live band was playing. He peeked inside, surprised to see how many people were lounging around and talking as the music filled the ambience. Mingyu’s never experienced this before, he figured it was a new trend that cafes were trying out.

Mingyu began walking once more, humming the tunes that came out from the cafe’s band. He might take his friends there one of these days, just so he can experience all of that he had just witnessed. He stepped into his apartment and went straight to the elevator, loosening his tie as he pressed the button to go up. Walking into the elevator, he was still humming the cafe music that was playing in his conscious. He grunted when he realized he pressed the second floor button instead of the fourth floor button where he resided. He always got distracted.

Leaning back against the elevator wall, he sighed. Mingyu stood up straight though when the elevator opened up to the second floor and there was someone who entered. Maybe he pressed that button for a reason after all. The stranger leaned his back against the other wall, probably unaware of Mingyu’s presence as he had his earphones in and was staring at his phone the entire time.

When the elevator reached the fourth floor, Mingyu stepped out and was surprised to see the other resident follow him out as well. Mingyu blinked as the other kept walking before Mingyu tapped him. He looked up at Mingyu after pausing his music and pulling out his earphones.

Mingyu cleared his throat. “Um, sorry to interrupt but did you mean to get off on the fourth floor?”

“Huh?” the guy blinked confused. “This isn’t the ground floor?”

Shaking his head, Mingyu tried his best to contain his laughter. “N-no. This is the fourth floor.”

The guy gasped and thanked Mingyu with a small bow before plugging his earphones back in and running back through the elevator doors before it closed. Mingyu snickered to himself as he went to unlock the door to his apartment. 

He entered the foyer and sighed as he saw the towel over the stove he dare not use. The towel has been there ever since he moved in; he’s never used the stove, always using the microwave or toaster oven as an alternative. Sometimes he feels as though the towel mocks or taunts him for never removing it from the stove.

He lets the thought slip away as he slipped off his shoes and slid into his house slippers as he walked into the living room. Mingyu misses cooking his own food though. He was afraid that he would forget how to cook and bake after not doing so for so long. After crossing that cafe though, he feels that maybe at least going to a cafe would be a small step into leaving his past behind him.

 

—

 

**IV.**

 

It was a quieter than usual train ride on Hansol’s commute to campus, but Hansol hadn’t noticed. That didn't stop him from plugging both of his earphones in. He grunted when Seungkwan nudged his elbow and removed one earphone to hear Seungkwan clearer. Seungkwan sighed as Hansol gave him a confused look, a sign he had to reiterate himself. “I said, maybe you should remove them just for this one ride.”

Hansol looked at Seungkwan with a blank expression that signified he did not understand the context of Seungkwan’s comment in the slightest nor did he want to perform such a suggestion. “What?”

“You always—how should I say this—ignore the sounds of everything except your phone. I mean, doesn't it get boring?” Seungkwan asked while keeping eye contact as Hansol’s eyebrows furrowed a bit. Hansol pouted and looked at his phone, scrolling for a new song to listen to in his right ear as Seungkwan sighed. “Sorry.”

“No you don’t have to apologize, you're not at fault,” Hansol mumbled back. “I'd rather not though.” 

With a sigh and a concerned look on his face, Seungkwan placed his hand on Hansol’s back and rubbed it as a sign of comforting affection. Hansol straightened his back as a result, but Seungkwan smiled when Hansol didn't nudge his hand off. “Nobody is staring at you, if that's something you're also worried about.” Hansol looked up at Seungkwan who just nodded. 

He was surprised to see Hansol slowly lift his head up from his lap and look around, smiling shyly in relief how the small population on the train was minding their own business. Hansol sighed at ease as he played the song on his phone once more, turning it down just in case Seungkwan talked to him again. Looking over at Seungkwan, they smiled at each other before they heard their exit number announced on the intercom.

There weren't in a rush to arrive to campus. Seungkwan’s literature lecture didn't start for another hour and Hansol didn't have any classes today. They walked towards the library, planning to sit in their usual spot. Seungkwan was surprised at how empty the campus was rather than usual, probably because other students were in their classes already. He looked and saw how Hansol didn't seem to observe their environment as much as he did. Hansol’s concentration was still on his phone.

After arriving up at the second floor via stairs, they were walking to their table when Hansol looked up, grabbed Seungkwan’s arm, and stopped walking. Seungkwan, surprised, turned back to see Hansol frowning. Turning back to the original view, Seungkwan saw a couple of underclassmen at their table. “Our names aren't on it,” Seungkwan whispered as he turned to face Hansol once more, trying to reason with him.

“It's our table though,” Hansol pouted in a hushed tone. He shook his head as he yanked the earphones out from his ears. 

“We'll just sit at another table on the floor. It's not a problem.” Seungkwan grabbed Hansol’s hand and tugged it to follow him. Hansol begrudgingly and sluggishly followed as Seungkwan was on the prowl for a free table. They settled for the table between the window and brick wall, a far walk from their usual table.

Hansol, though still upset, placed his backpack down and pulled out his laptop, plugging it into the outlet under his chair as Seungkwan gently settled his textbook and laptop across from him. “You leave soon, right?” Hansol asked.

Seungkwan checked his phone for the time. “I'll leave in half an hour. That should be enough time to finish this work for tomorrow.” He noticed how Hansol nodded before plugging back into his music. Seungkwan sat down but smiled as he saw how Hansol seemed to adapt better than expected. He knew how hard it was for Hansol when a routine fell out of place.

It wasn't long before Hansol peeked up from his laptop screen to see Seungkwan packing up. “Already?” he asked, taking out the left earphone. Seungkwan made eye contact as he slowly closed his laptop and nodded, pointing to the time on Hansol’s phone. Hansol couldn't believe how quickly the time passed. He decided to take a small break as Seungkwan continued packing up.

“You gonna wait for me?” Seungkwan asked softly as he put his jacket on. He struggled to zip it up as he was looking at Hansol for a reply.

Hansol shrugged. “Probably, but just text me when you’re done with class. Does Chan need you home by a certain time?” he snickered.

“He's not my mother,” Seungkwan rolled his eyes, “but my mom wants me to call her tonight. Remind me.”

“Can do.”

“I also need to stay up to finish this paper for next week. Are you staying over tonight? Chan said he's coming late because of practice, so you might wake up at two in the morning from him entering.”

Hansol shook his head. “I can stay at your place for a bit, but I think I'm going to sleep at my place.”

Seungkwan looked at Hansol shocked as he pulled his zipper up all the way. “Really?” He slung his backpack on as Hansol nodded, sitting up straight to fix his position. “Do you want me to walk you home tonight?”

“I'm not a child,” Hansol joked. Seungkwan knew he was forcing out a chuckle though. “I'll be fine. I think I need some alone time tonight.”

With a pout, Seungkwan nodded, gripping the straps of his bag. “Well… alright. I'll be back in two hours.”

They did their handshake before Seungkwan left. Hansol monitored his friend before he disappeared from sight. He sighed to himself, plugging his earphones back in, typing up his Creative Writing paper due in two days. Truthfully, he had already met the word count requirement. He was actually ahead of all of his work, despite him telling Seungkwan otherwise. Leaning against his chair, Hansol looked around at the other students who were minding their own business with their own work. 

Hansol observed them, many of them were in their own friend groups quietly chatting. He pouted, somewhat jealous at how they were able to spend quality time with their friends as they studied. He was grateful that he was able to have time like that with Seungkwan and Chan, but the other two were often more busier than he was, so he was mostly by himself. Hansol also knows he can’t rely solely on his two friends for everything and he didn’t want to bug them that much either. 

Thinking back to his earlier days, Hansol was never the type to have many friends, only a close group of a few friends. They kept teasing him on how Hansol was still popular regardless for his physical features being seen as attractive, but Hansol never gave that fact much thought. In fact, he wasn’t into the idea that people would only like him for his looks rather than his personality. He’s experienced that situation one too many times.

Shaking out of his thoughts, he went back to his paper. Only, he wasn’t working on his paper. Rather, he was working on a short story he’s been writing since the beginning of two semesters ago. Despite being a short story, Hansol wanted it to give off a lyrical vibe, as if they were just elongated lyrics from one of his favourite songs. 

He pulled out a crumpled napkin out of his jacket’s pocket and flattened it out, straightening it against the edge of the table to make it less wrinkly. He began to type down what he wrote the other day at a cafe he visited with Chan. It wasn’t an unfamiliar situation, Hansol seemed to always get ideas unpredictably and wrote it down on any medium he could get his hands down. He didn’t have his notebook handy that day and settled for a napkin. Chan had noticed as well, but made no comment since he didn’t want to disturb Hansol while he was in his zone.

Shoving the napkin back into his jacket, he reread the words he wrote on the screen in front of him by muttering them to himself. He jumped in shock when he got a text from Seungkwan stating that he was done with class but that Soohyun invited him to get lunch and asked Hansol if he wanted to tag along. Hansol grimaced at the thought and texted back to decline the offer.

Soohyun was a nice underclassman that was in most of Seungkwan’s classes, but Hansol wasn’t too comfortable with unfamiliar people. He can’t help but be awkward with her when he first met her and he didn’t want to experience that level of uncomfortability again. He sent another text stating that he’ll be at his apartment and that Seungkwan can text him after lunch to pick him up and head to his and Chan’s apartment afterwards. Seungkwan agreed and Hansol sighed in relief. 

Hansol stayed for a few more minutes before shutting down his laptop and packing everything up. He noticed how the floor seemed to be more packed, probably because everyone was on their lunch break and wanted to fit in an extra cramming session before the next set of classes began in the afternoon. As he slung his backpack over his shoulder and began walking, he saw how a group of students already claimed the table he was using. He turned back around and walked away, smiling a bit at how it reminded him of his friends when they were underclassmen.

He plugged his earphones in and played his music as soon as he walked out of the library and began walking on campus. Contrary to Seungkwan’s thoughts, Hansol always observed the world around him. He wanted background music though. He liked listening to music wherever he went, especially at times such as these lonely walks by himself. It was his only company. In fact, it’s the only company that Hansol can fully rely on.

He took the long way home, walking back to the apartment instead of taking the subway. It was a thirty minute walk, but that meant more time to listen to his music. Hansol noticed the stares that people were giving him, probably again from his looks. He tried to drown them out by focusing on the beats that played in his ears, nodding to them and syncing his footsteps with them as well. The stares were common, but it’s not like Hansol enjoyed drawing that sort of attention to himself. 

The walk home was quicker than usual, probably because the songs he was listening to had a faster beat. He decided to stop by a convenience store to grab a quick lunch. Hansol walked in and bowed to the cashier behind the counter who greeted him. He walked straight to the ramen section and grabbed one before looking around for more snacks. Pulling out a couple of chips and bottles of soda, Hansol hummed to himself along to his music. He placed all of the food into a basket near the entrance and picked it up, carrying it to the counter.

He pulled out his earphones as the cashier began to ring it up. Hansol knew it was rude to keep his headphones in. Before the cashier could ring up all the items, Hansol blinked at a thought he had. “Do you guys have almond milk?”

The cashier blinked at such an odd question but nevertheless answered. “Oh, sorry. I think we ran out of it yesterday. We’ll probably have it in stock again by tomorrow.” Hansol nodded as the cashier hummed. “It’s surprising how much almond milk we sell on account the only people who buy it are you and another guy.”

“It’s pretty good,” Hansol chuckled along with the cashier. He slid his card and carried the bags of food with him after saying thanks and waving a farewell before he left the store. 

He walked to the apartment, a bag in each hand. Once he entered through the doorway, he stopped in front of the elevator and placed the one bag on the floor to press the elevator button. He grabbed the bag up again. Hansol realized that his earphones were dangling off of his shoulder as they were slung around his neck rather than plugged into his ears. He didn’t mind it, and he was too lazy to plug them back in on account he didn’t want to put the bags down again only to carry them back up. He was almost at his place anyway. Someone else walked in and walked towards the elevators as well, standing next to Hansol, but at a relative distance on account they don’t know each other. Hansol glanced over. The stranger seemed familiar, but again he bumps into a lot of people within the apartment. The elevator doors opened and the two stepped in. The other was paying attention to his phone and tapped the third floor button. Hansol blinked and coughed as he still held the bags in both hands. “Excuse me?” The stranger looked up from his phone. “Could you press the second floor for me, please?” Nodding, the stranger did so and Hansol thanked him.

“No problem,” he replied back with a smile. They looked away from each other but unknowingly began tapping their foot to the beat of the elevator music in sync. Hansol smiled when he saw the stranger enjoying the music as much as he did. 

The elevator dinged once it hit the second floor and the door opened. Hansol politely bowed to the stranger who bowed back before the door closed. Hansol walked down the hallway and put one of the bags down to grab the key in his pocket. He gasped when he realized that the napkin he wrote his ideas down on slipped out. He whined to himself as he found the keys and opened the door with them, grumbling how he hated when he lost things such as that. He was glad that he managed to write down the ideas on his laptop beforehand though. And maybe, if someone picked it up, his words would move them the same way the words moved himself.

 

——

 

**I+II.**

 

Wonwoo was warming up his almond milk in the microwave, standing in front of it as he continued to scroll through his social media feed with the sounds of soft jazz accompanying as it emitted from his phone’s speaker. He turned to see the snow flurries still falling outside of the window, sighing to himself. He hopes that Soonyoung didn’t have any trouble on his commute this morning from the inclement weather; it's bad enough he has to work on a Saturday.

He pulled the mug out of the microwave at the sound of the beep going off. Carefully, he stirred in the hot cocoa mix while humming along to the music. “Oh, that was a nice trill,” he comments in a mumble after hearing it from his phone. Wonwoo blows on the mug and take a careful sip as he walks over to the apartment screen door that acted as a large window. It was too cold to walk onto the makeshift deck, but Wonwoo still admired the scenery from inside.

His music softened as his phone vibrated with an incoming message. After returning to its original volume, Wonwoo walked back and saw Soonyoung had texted about a few errands and chores. Wonwoo sighed but decided he'd do what he could despite it ruining his peaceful morning. He settled for doing the laundry for the two of them.

He placed his finished mug in the sink and walked to Soonyoung’s room first, mumbling how unkempt it was as he picked up the articles of clothing off of the floor and into the hamper. He repeated this with his room—that was tidier and less chaotic—before combining them into one laundry bag. Wonwoo pulled earphones out of his desk drawer and shoved it into his pockets as he carried the laundry bag out of the apartment and towards the elevator.

Even though they didn't have their own washer and dryer, it was convenient that they had one in their apartment rather than relying on a laundromat. The elevator opened and Wonwoo stepped in, carrying the bag. He set it down and paused the music from his phone and leaned against the back wall as he listened to the music provided by the elevator. He wasn’t sure why he was so drawn to the elevator music, but it was rather soothing. Wonwoo assumed it was some type of bossa nova and jazz love child, which he was a fan of.

He reached the fifth floor and sighed to himself, a bit disappointed that he wasn’t able to continue listening to the soothing music. Nevertheless, he persisted. Carrying his laundry bag, he was sure his ears were tricking him as he heard music coming down from the hallway. As he continued to walk closer to the laundry room, Wonwoo realized the music was coming from the laundry room. Shocked, he slowly opened the door and realized he wasn’t the only resident who had the idea to do laundry on such a snowy day. 

Wonwoo walked through the door and blinked when he saw the guy he bumped into in the elevator the other day. He was folding his laundry when he saw Wonwoo come in. They shared an awkward but unknowingly comfortable bow with each other as Wonwoo went to his own table. He saw the other reach over to turn down his music but Wonwoo blinked as he was sorting his piles. “You don’t have to lower it,” Wonwoo coughed. The other looked over as Wonwoo was putting the whites into the washer. “You can keep the music on speaker,” Wonwoo added.

The other blinked but smiled, pulling his hand away from his phone. “Okay,” he grinned. They continued their business. Normally, Wonwoo would go back to his apartment and come back to the laundry room within an hour or so to move his clothes to the dryer. But as Wonwoo put his darks into the adjacent washer, he felt drawn to stay in the room, especially with the music playing in the background. It reminded him of the elevator music, maybe that was what made him stay.

Wonwoo blinked when he heard a familiar beat. The atmosphere was filled with a similar jazzy riff that he had heard previously earlier in the morning as it was on his playlist. He grinned when he heard the apartment resident humming to it as well. “You listen to them too?” Wonwoo asked.

The other looked over with a shocked but delighted expression, as if he was just as surprised as Wonwoo that someone listened to the same genre. “Yeah,” the other nodded. He smiled. “They’re my favourite, actually.”

“Mine too,” Wonwoo grinned. He walked over to formally shake the other’s hand. “Wonwoo.”

“Seungcheol,” Seungcheol smiled as he shook Wonwoo’s hand. “Good to know I’m not the only one who appreciates lo-fi music. My best friend keeps saying it isn’t real since it’s all just samples and a few easy chords,” he snickered.

“Oh, I understand why he’d think that,” Wonwoo nods. “But sometimes… music is just about the feel rather than the structure… you know?”

Seungcheol gasped as he looked at Wonwoo with such glee on his face. “Yes, that’s exactly what I told him!” They both snickered as Seungcheol shrugged as he was fixing his piles of folded clothes into his laundry basket. “I don’t blame him though. He’s the one with the masters degree in music composition, not me. But sometimes… it’s just nice to have background music as your company…” Seungcheol rubbed his nose as he straightened a few clothes and whispered, “especially when it’s your only company.”

Wonwoo blinked at the hushed statement. And it wasn’t because of how saddening it was, but rather how relatable it was. “Yeah,” Wonwoo smiled, “I understand that as well.” 

Seungcheol looked up and smiled before he pulled the laundry basket up and gripped it as he carried it in front of him. “We should definitely do laundry together more.” They both chuckled. “Better yet,” Seungcheol hummed, “I live on this floor. Two doors down from here. If you ever want to just hang out and chill to some music, I’d be down with it. Especially since we have the same taste.”

The offer was so friendly and genuine, Wonwoo was surprised. To be honest, other than Soonyoung, he didn’t really have any friends, let alone acquaintances (though, he always did greet their concierge at the front of their building and asked him how his family was on a daily basis). And despite only knowing Seungcheol for a little under an hour, that musical connection they shared was so rare and authentic, he didn’t want to let this slip. “Sure, I’d love to,” Wonwoo nodded. Seungcheol grinned back and said farewell as he left the laundry room, taking the phone that emitted their favourite genre with him.

The room was left quiet and Wonwoo was alone with his thoughts and the music that filled the hallway outside. He pulled out his own phone and played his own playlist, similar to Seungcheol’s. He wasn’t sure what that was, what that moment with the guy from the elevator was, but this was the first time he openly talked to music with anyone. He knew Soonyoung appreciated and listened to music a lot, especially since he spontaneously made up choreography on the spot, but Soonyoung didn’t have the same understanding or love of music that Wonwoo possessed. Wonwoo had a feeling that him and Seungcheol were going to grow close in no time.

 

“I made a new friend,” Seungcheol hummed as he was setting his clothes back onto their hangers before hanging them in his closet. He paused his music at Jisoo’s call and decided to just have a quiet and nice conversation between them, something he’s never had in previous relationships.

“Oh, that’s nice,” Jisoo hummed from the other line. Seungcheol could hear the mumbling and change of guitar chords as Jisoo took breaks in between to write something down in his notebook. “He seems like a nice guy too, especially since you two share the same music.”

“That’s what I’m saying,” Seungcheol nodded in agreement. He walked over to check on his phone and blinked before whining to himself how he forgot to give Wonwoo his own phone number. “Fuck, the only contact I gave him is my apartment number.”

Jisoo laughed on the other line, causing Seungcheol to blush. “At least you gave him something. Who knows, maybe he’ll actually go to your apartment and take you up on your offer.” Jisoo paused and held his guitar as he heard Seungcheol incoherently mumble to himself. He giggled, he found it cute how often Seungcheol talked to himself. “Well, let this be a lesson that the next time you run into a new friend to offer your number to them.

Seungcheol finished hanging his clothes and closed his closet. He walked over to his bed where he placed his phone and jumped on, lying down on his stomach as he crawled over to grab his charger to plug his phone in the outlet on the wall near his headboard. “Isn’t that sort of… weird? Meeting someone for the first time and then, ‘Oh, hey I barely know you but here’s my number.’”

“Well, that’s technically how we met, wasn’t it?” Jisoo hummed.

There was a moment of silence before Seungcheol pouted, a bit flustered. “N-not entirely. Isn’t meeting someone on a dating app different?”

“You gave me your number after our first conversation because you didn’t trust the app’s messaging system,” Jisoo commented, grinning cheekily when Seungcheol whined loudly. Jisoo laughed, which made Seungcheol soften, before Jisoo started fiddling around on his guitar once again. “Well, regardless, I don’t think it’s strange or anything if you give someone your number on a whim like that, especially if you want to get closer to them. I mean, we got closer because of it.”

Seungcheol blushed. He rolled onto his back on the mattress and sighed to himself. He wasn’t sure why or how Jisoo decided to stay connected to him, but he was grateful. On the first date, he was already open how Seungcheol was nervous and anxious about a new relationship but Jisoo was understanding enough to stay and see where their connection would go. He was thankful for Jisoo in that sense, especially with how his last relationship ended with so much miscommunication and lack of understanding. Jisoo seemed to defy what Seungcheol expected in a relationship and he hoped that something deeper and more meaningful—with a bit of romantic love—would be in their future.

 

—

 

**II+IV.**

 

Seungcheol grumbled to himself as he was rummaging through the jackets in his closet. “You’re really lucky I love you so much,” he groaned. He heard the laugh from his phone as it was on speaker lying down on his bed. Seungcheol pulled out a sweater and tossed it onto the bed as he was still looking for a jacket. “Why can’t you just come here? I always go there!”

“Because you know I hate going outside,” Jihoon hummed on the other line. “And besides, don’t you like snow? Doesn’t it remind you of that one tacky rhythm you listened to the other day that I criticized?”

“You criticize all my music!” Seungcheol whined loudly. He heard Jihoon snicker but apologize. He sighed, “yeah yeah, you can have your opinions about my ‘trashy music.’” Seungcheol managed to find the puffy navy blue jacket in the back of his closet and pulled it out. He quickly tucked in his plain white shirt into his pants before sliding the sweater on.

“I never called your music ‘trashy,’” Jihoon laughed, “it just isn’t my taste. I respect you like it though.” Seungcheol continued to mutter to himself as he fixed the sweater on himself and slung the jacket over before zipping it up and running around his room to find a hat and gloves. “That date went well?” Jihoon asked. “You never told me how it went.”

Seungcheol looked over at his phone as if Jihoon was in the room with him. His face grew red as he nodded to himself. “It was a nice date,” he softly spoke. “We’re planning to go on another date this week.”

Jihoon blinked at his phone phone, as if Seungcheol was already with him. “Whoa, really? It must have really been a nice date.”

As he wrapped his neck with a scarf he found, Seungcheol grinned as he reminisced the date. “Yeah, it was a really nice date. Jisoo is a good guy,” he hummed happily. “Maybe one day you can meet him, Jihoon.”

Despite grimacing at the thought of watching his hyung perform PDA in front of him, Jihoon was awfully curious as to how this Jisoo guy holds up. The last time Jihoon met someone that Seungcheol liked was with his last serious relationship, and Jihoon felt awkward when they broke up since he was rather close to Seungcheol’s ex, even afterwards. Jihoon picked Seungcheol’s side, of course, but Jihoon was afraid to see a growing friendship with this Jisoo fellow because he was scared of history repeating itself. He took a deep breath though and smiled. “Sure, I’d love to meet him, Hyung.” Seungcheol didn’t reply, but Jihoon could tell by Seungcheol’s humming that he was happy with Jihoon’s reply. Jihoon sighed and ruffled his hair as he tapped his fingers on his piano keyboard. “How about I just let you get ready, Hyung? You can just text me when you’re outside of the building. I’ll try to get you before you’re completely covered in snow.” Seungcheol whined but agreed, Jihoon smiled before he hung up.

After bundling up with everything, Seungcheol exited the building and grunted as the cold wind with the snowflakes blew straight into his face. He continued forward though, thankful that the sidewalks were already cleaned up. He looked around and saw that there were still people walking in the snowy weather, a bit surprised that people still had work. Seungcheol himself didn’t have to go to work because of the weather conditions. He walked towards the train station and gasped in relief when he felt the radiating heat dawn upon him as he walked down the stairs underground.

He pulled off his hood and sighed in relief as he unwrapped the scarf around his neck. He stuffed his hat and scarf into his backpack—that was thankfully waterproof—after he scanned his ticket through the gate. Seungcheol fixed his hair in the shiny pillar that was close to the train’s waiting area. Jihoon’s seen him as a disheveled mess before, but he still wanted to look good. (He was aware that Jisoo also took the train a lot, and if he bumped into Jisoo, Seungcheol wanted to look presentable.)

The train pulled up and Seungcheol smiled to himself. He walked into the train as others followed behind him. He pulled out the earphones in his pocket and plugged it into his phone. Seungcheol blinked when he saw the song that had played earlier when he ran into Wonwoo in the laundry room. He restarted the song as it filled his left ear with tunes as the right earphone dangled. He turned his head when someone ran into the train gasping for air. Seungcheol assumed he was afraid he was going to miss the train, which he would have if he went any slower because the train doors closed almost immediately as the stranger ran inside.

He continued to mind his own business until he heard a familiar tune fill the air, surprisingly loudly. Seungcheol looked down at his phone to make sure it wasn’t him before he realized it was the stranger who rushed in. He looked over and saw them whine to themselves before plugging in their own earphones to their phone. Seungcheol snickered, seeing as everyone moved away from them. Seungcheol, however, was intrigued and moved closer. The stranger was flustered as they kept mumbling something to themselves with one earphone dangling and another plugged in. “Nice song,” Seungcheol commented.

The stranger looked up shocked with a flushed face from the incident. “H-huh?” 

“The song that you blasted by accident,” Seungcheol chuckled. “It’s a good song.”

Blinking, the stranger smiled shyly. “Ah… y-yeah, I like the artist.”

“That’s surprising,” Seungcheol commented as the train began to move. They both held onto the same standing pole. “A lot of people don’t like him.”

Pouting, the stranger nodded. “Yeah… he isn’t really popular. Which I don’t understand because… his music is good.”

Seungcheol shrugged. “Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, but yeah, I agree. I think people bash on him too much. He focuses a lot on his lyrical content, but everyone thinks it’s ‘fake deep.’” He looked over and snickered bashfully. “Ah, I’m speaking too much, huh?”

The stranger shook his head enthusiastically. “No, no, what you’re saying is true. I always hate it when people judge him like that. They always say how fake he is and how his beats aren’t as good as other artists.” He paused his phone and looked over at Seungcheol before coughing. “I’m Hansol, by the way.”

Seungcheol grinned and introduced himself back. “Hm, you seem young. Ah, not to judge you on your age and your music take.”

Hansol hummed. “Yeah, I’m in uni still. My second year, actually.”

Seungcheol whistled. “Campus wasn’t closed today?” Hansol puffed his cheeks and nodded, earning a subtle laugh from Seungcheol. “Wow, that must be frustrating. But I understand. I usually skipped class when the weather was like this. Don’t be like me.”

Nodding, Hansol looked at Seungcheol in awe. “You… you look familiar Seungcheol Hyung.” They both shared a thoughtful glance at each other before Hansol blinked. “Do you live near the convenience store with the nosy cashier?” With Seungcheol’s laugh and nod, Hansol grinned. “We probably live in the same building.”

“With Mr. Song the concierge that keeps showing pictures of his son and daughter?” Seungcheol asked. They both made an ‘ayy’ noise quietly as they high fived each other. They shared a laugh, zoning out the fact that bystanders on the train were staring at them. Seungcheol was oddly surprised to find more people who live in the same building who have the same taste in music but have never encountered before until recently. They continued to talk: it was mostly Hansol ranting about the rapper he looked up to for writing inspiration. Seungcheol grinned. “You’re a writing major?”

Hansol blushed shyly but nodded, pulling the small notebook out of his pocket. He opened to a random page and showed Seungcheol. “Yeah… I’m in Creative Writing, and my professor let’s me submit a few song lyrics I think about… he said he likes how I express myself.” He gasped silently. “Oh… I hope this… isn’t weird or anything.” Hansol took his book back after Seungcheol finished reading. He was about to turn away, when Seungcheol commented.

“You’re very talented,” Seungcheol grinned. Hansol looked up from the floor and blinked. Seungcheol nodded. “Have you ever—you know—thought about making a mixtape or something? Like putting your lyrics to the instrumental of your favourite artist.”

“I have,” Hansol scratched the back of his neck a bit embarrassed at admitting to it. “But… I’ve always wanted to try to make my own music with my own lyrics. I think it would be… fun.”

Seungcheol tilted his head a bit, jumping at the sound of the speaker of the train announcing his stop. He turned back to Hansol. “Well, my best friend is a producer actually. Maybe when he comes over to the apartment, you can come up too.”

Hansol gasped in delight. “I… I would like that.” 

“Great,” Seungcheol smiled as he patted Hansol’s shoulder. They both noticed the train had stopped a few seconds ago and Seungcheol gasped as he had to get off before the doors closed. He saluted to Hansol before waving. “I live two doors from the laundry room on the fifth floor. Stop by some time.”

Hansol nodded as he watched Seungcheol walk out of the train with the doors closing behind him. Hansol blinked at the door and stared at it for a bit longer before plugging both of his earphones in. He played the song on his music player, but lowered the volume a bit so that the music faintly played as he heard the murmurs of the people on the train, as Seungkwan had always suggested to him. He smiled to himself. He’s never really told anyone he wanted to make his own music, even his two best friends—Seungkwan and Chan, and he wasn’t sure why he told a complete stranger who was actually an apartment mate he had only saw in passing. He grunted to himself, realizing he should have gotten Seungcheol’s number instead. However, he is thankful that Seungcheol offered his apartment to him. Despite Hansol’s fear of meeting new people, he might take Seungcheol up on the offer.

 

—

 

**III+IV.**

 

Hansol waited outside of the English department building and sighed to himself as he continued to scroll through his phone. His earphones played tunes into his body that he nodded off to as he continued to mindlessly look at his feed. He honestly didn’t like doing this, he hated looking at social media, but it became a habit whenever he waited for Seungkwan outside of his class. He felt the stares of other students that walked passed him and Hansol tried to drown them out with his music turned a bit louder than usual. It worked for the most part. His thoughts pulled his eyes away though as he remembered about running into Seungcheol.  He wasn’t exactly sure what to think about the chance encounter, but it was as if they were meant to meet at that exact moment. 

If Hansol were to run even just a little bit slower, he would have missed the train and missed his chance to bump into Seungcheol. If Hansol plugged the earphones into his phone correctly, nobody, including Seungcheol, would have heard his music blasting into the air like that. If Hansol had just looked away and avoided eye contact with anyone, Seungcheol would not have talked to him and Hansol would not have shared a small piece of his heart with the older one. He wonders if he will meet more people like Seungcheol in the near future. But for now, he’ll probably visit Seungcheol tomorrow or the next day on the fifth floor. Maybe another friend is just what he needed.

Seungkwan tapped Hansol’s shoulders which caused him to yelp and jump away from Seungkwan. He pouted when he heard Seungkwan snicker after his earphones unplugged from his phone and paused his music. “Wow, you’re still easily frightened when I do that?” Seungkwan grinned as he fixed the straps on his backpack. “I thought you were used to it by now.”

“You haven’t done it in a while,” Hansol scrunched his nose before they did their handshake. “Are we meeting up with Chan at the apartment?”

“Actually,” Seungkwan hummed as they walked down the stairs together back onto the main grounds of campus, “Chan said he found this new cafe. He said that you’d like it a lot so he wants us to meet him there.” Hansol whined as he was wrapping his earphones before stuffing it into his pocket. Seungkwan grinned, knowing that Hansol was definitely interested since he didn’t object to the idea. Looking around, Seungkwan noticed how the sky was still an off-white colour due to the cloudiness from the day before with the snow. There was still a bit of snow on the ground, but the university cleaned their sidewalks very well that it wasn’t much of a bother to the students. “Weather’s been crazy lately, huh?”

Hansol nodded as he looked at his surroundings. “Yeah, I’ll say. It’s supposed to be springy weather tomorrow. The snow is supposed to melt by tomorrow morning.” He saw his friend pause in his tracks in his peripheral. Hansol stopped and turned to Seungkwan and blinked. “What?”

“You’re not listening to music,” Seungkwan commented as he walked over to Hansol. They continued walking together.

“Yeah? And?”

“You rarely do that,” Seungkwan grinned. “You also never talk about the weather with me.” Hansol scrunched his nose and stuffed his hand into the pocket where his earphones rested as Seungkwan squealed and laughed as he grabbed his friend’s hand from pulling them out. “I’m just saying—it’s a nice change.” Hansol rested his hand and let Seungkwan continue to hold onto it. Seungkwan was very affectionate, much to Hansol’s dismay, but Hansol didn’t mind too much. They were best friends after all. “Chan mentioned there’s a live band at this cafe.”

Hansol turned to Seungkwan intrigued. “Really? That’s new.” Seungkwan nodded as Hansol turned his face back to the horizon in front of them full of people walking, buildings surrounding their sides, and cars driving around. “That’s pretty interesting. Reminds me of New York.”

“You said you barely remember New York,” Seungkwan hummed teasingly. Hansol whined before calming down as Seungkwan patted Hansol’s hand that he pulled out of his pocket. 

“Well, from  _ what _ I remember, there were a lot of places—like cafes, restaurants, bars, and clubs—that had live music.” Hansol nodded as it being the only vivid memory he had of his hometown. He wasn’t sure why that was the only thing he remembered, but it probably had to do with the fact that it involved music. 

They continued to walk as Seungkwan was leading the two of them with walking directions from his phone with the address that Chan had sent them earlier. They were in a familiar part of town as Hansol realized they were just a couple blocks shy of his apartment. They spotted Chan by the entrance who waved at them enthusiastically before walking up to them. They all did their handshake before Chan grinned excitedly. “You’re just in time, the band is just tuning their instruments now. If we make it in and order quickly, we should make it in time for their first song.”

Chan pulled both of them into the cafe before Seungkwan spotted a seat by the corner near the window to sit down. The three of them sat down and Hansol blinked in surprise when a waitress came over to hand them menus before rushing over to another table that was calling her. Seungkwan whistled. “Wow, I don’t think I’ve been to a fancy place like this before.” The other two nodded as they were all looking at the menu.

“Oh, the price isn’t that bad either,” Hansol hummed, “especially since it’s a sit down. Though,” he pulled his head up to look around at the other people who were mingling at their own table, “it does seem more casual than your average sit-down.”

“I think the owner wanted to make a hybrid of a casual cafe and a sit-down restaurant,” Chan hummed. “Oh, they have my usual order here! I think I’ll just get a macchiato then. Are you guys going to get your usual too?”

Seungkwan snickered. “Boy, calm down. There’s no rush to ordering. We’re just here to unwind and enjoy the music.” Chan pouted but rolled his shoulders back before he sighed to settle his excitement. Seungkwan patted his back before nudging him to look over at Hansol. They both looked to see Hansol tapping his foot as the band started playing a mellow tune. Seungkwan smiled and whispered first. “You were right, he likes this place.”

Chan grinned. “That’s good. I’m glad we could take him out. Hey, maybe he’ll meet someone new here too. Someone he could talk to music about.”

“Baby steps, Chan. Baby steps,” Seungkwan hummed. He looked over at the band playing their instruments and grinned. “Actually,” he turned back to Chan, “Sol mentioned that he did run into someone. Someone from his apartment? Said he’s never really talked to him before until the other day.  They might hang out tomorrow actually.” Chan blinked with wide eyes in shock as Seungkwan nodded. “I know. I’m excited for him too.

The waitress came back as the three of them ordered their usual caffeinated beverage order along with two slices of cake to share. Looking around, Hansol noticed how the tables were filling up quite quickly. “Wow, there’s a lot more people here,” Hansol observed.

“I think we always bring the crowd whenever we try out a restaurant,” Seungkwan snickered. “Then again, we usually come before peak hours. So that could be it as well.” They noticed a trio sit at the table next to theirs on the right. Seungkwan scrunched his nose at the thought that the other trio’s table probably had a better view of the band compared to theirs, but he didn’t really mind. He was just happy to be with his friends. Seungkwan was especially happy that Hansol seemed to be okay being surrounded by people, particularly because nobody stared at him.

Their drinks came and Hansol hummed to the music as he sipped on his americano. He blew onto it before sipping it again when the three of them gasped when the waitress brought over the slices of cake. “Oh gosh,” Chan gasped, “it looks so pretty.” The waitress giggled at the comment before leaving as Chan blinked at her before looking at the guys. “Should I shoot my shot?”

Hansol and Seungkwan snickered together as Seungkwan passed around the forks. “Go for it,” Seungkwan gave him a thumbs up. “But do it when she isn’t busy. Maybe after the band is done performing? Only if you’re willing to stay that long.” The two of them continued to talk as Hansol entered his own realm of thoughts. He nodded to himself as he tried the mocha cake that went well with his americano. The music was soothing, as if it had some sort of healing power that made Hansol forget how stressed he was about school, about grades, about his social anxiety.

He gasped and jumped a bit when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He knew it wasn’t Seungkwan since he was bickering with Chan in front of him. Turning, Hansol blinked when he made eye contact with one of the guys from the trio that sat next to them. “Excuse me,” the stranger spoke, “what cake is that? It looks delicious.”

Swallowing the piece of cake in his mouth, Hansol wiped his mouth and straightened his back. He grinned as he looked at the stranger. “It’s mocha. I really recommend it. We also got a strawberry shortcake, but I think this is my favourite so far.” The stranger smiled and nodded before turning back to his two friends to answer their question about the cake. Hansol wasn’t sure but the stranger didn’t seem like a stranger. He seemed familiar. Hesitantly, Hansol reached over and tapped the stranger’s shoulder, which caused him to turn around. Hansol took a sip of his americano to calm himself down—or to give him the caffeinated boost he needed in order to talk to people—before he talked. “You seem familiar,” he confessed. Truthfully, this is probably the biggest step Hansol has ever taken to talking to someone he barely knew.

“Really?” the stranger asked—a bit confused—but from the looks of it, seemed to have recognized Hansol as well. The stranger gasped before snapping his fingers. “You got off on the wrong floor in the elevator. The other day, I said this was the fourth floor and you thought it was the ground floor.” 

Hansol also gasped in realization as he clapped his hands and jumped a bit, he seemed more enthusiastic than he expected. “Yeah that’s right,” he pointed to the stranger before he calmed down. He pulled his hands back and cut the cake with his fork as he continued to hold the conversation, probably the longest conversation he’s ever had with someone who wasn’t a professor, Chan, or Seungkwan. “You live on the fourth floor then, I assume?” The stranger nodded before extending a hand.

“Mingyu. Apparently we’re apartment neighbors.” Mingyu grinned as Hansol introduced himself back and shook his hand firmly. “Oh, firm handshake,” Mingyu commented. They pulled their hands back before Mingyu hummed. “Funny how we bumped into each other here, huh? I passed by this cafe on the way to the apartment and I figured I’d come here with my friends. We were going to come on the weekend but my friends kept insisting to come tonight,” he chuckled.

Grinning, Hansol nodded in understanding. “Yeah, my friend said there was a new cafe that we had to try. You know, typical millenials and their food culture,” he joked. The two of them shared a laugh before Mingyu turned back when the waitress came over to take their order. Hansol turned back to his friends as well whom he blinked at as they were staring at him with wide grins. “What?”

“You talked to someone!” Chan exclaimed as the two of them clapped their hands, making Hansol groan embarrassed. His ears turned red but he smiled as his friends chuckled. 

“We live in the same apartment actually,” Hansol said. He pushed the mocha cake to the two of them as the three of them began eating it together. “Funny how we bumped into each other a second time, huh?” The other two nodded as they couldn’t speak since their mouths were full. Hansol couldn’t help but smile at how humourous the sight was. He blinked when he realized the band finished a song and he looked over and clapped excitedly as other customers were doing the same as well. 

He was surprised for Mingyu to tap his shoulder again. He wasn’t sure if this is how people interacted with each other, but he was quick to accept it as a social norm. “They played really well,” Mingyu commented. “It’s not very often that you see a baritone sax played in a band.”

Hansol gasped in amazement. “You can recognize a baritone from an alto?” Mingyu grinned with just as much amazement at how the two of them knew what the other was saying. Hansol shook his head and blushed shyly. “Ah, sorry if I sounded too excited just now. It’s not often I can talk to someone about music like this. My friends don’t really… understand.”

Mingyu blinked but looked at Hansol with sympathy, especially with how much he related to it. He looked over and smiled at Seokmin and Minghao who accompanied him, bobbing their heads and talking to each other as they moved to the music. He loved his friends, but even with how much they appreciate music or how great of a singer Seokmin was, they never understood or felt music the same way Mingyu did. He reached over to Hansol’s shoulder. “I understand,” Mingyu smiled. Hansol blinked before smiling back at his newly found friend. 

The song ended and everyone in the cafe applauded. The set of songs continued to play as Mingyu and Hansol continued to talk. Seungkwan and Chan introduced themselves to Mingyu, Seokmin, and Minghao and the six of them joined tables to talk with each other. Hansol was surprised at how knowledgeable Minghao was when it came to beverages and how amazing Seokmin could pick up the harmony for the songs the band played that he recognized. The five of them even made a bet as they watched Chan get up and walk over to talk to the waitress, surprised at how long the conversation between the two lasted before Chan came over grinning with a piece of paper the waitress scribbled her number on.

At the end of the night, Mingyu and Hansol decided to walk to the apartment together as the other four said their farewells and headed in the opposite direction before splitting. Mingyu and Hansol continued to talk about music, surprised that the other could have so much knowledge and comments about the subject. Mingyu whistled with his hands shoved in his pocket before he looked over at Hansol. For someone a few years younger than him, he was surprised at how they were almost the same height. “Wow, are you a music major or something? You really know your stuff.”

Hansol blushed shyly. “Ah, thank you, Hyung. I’m actually just a writing major… I wish I was a music major though,” he sighed. “But it doesn’t pay well… my parents don’t approve of it either.” He shrugged as he rubbed his hands together when a cold breeze blew their way. “I don’t mind though. I like writing.”

Looking over, Mingyu blinked at Hansol before coughing. “Is writing your passion?”

“Yeah, it’s one of them,” Hansol shrugged. “I think I just like doing a lot of things, but yeah, being an English major was the next best thing for me.”

“That’s good though. That you had a Plan B… I didn’t really have that luxury… I got a business and finances degree, but it’s not really my passion.”

They turned the corner and were about a block away from their apartment. Hansol was surprised how quickly they arrived with the shortcut Mingyu showed him. He made a mental note to use it more often during his walking commutes. Turning to Mingyu, Hansol tilted his head a bit. “Well… are you passionately chasing it?” Hansol asked. Mingyu looked over confused as he opened the door for Hansol to step in first. He followed in right after. They waved at the concierge before walking to the elevator and Hansol tapped the button to go upstairs. “Sometimes it’s not really about chasing your passion, sometimes you can just be passionate about what you chase.”

The elevator opened and the two of them stepped inside. Hansol was the one to press the buttons so that Mingyu wouldn’t accidentally press the wrong button as he had with their first encounter with each other. Mingyu sighed. “I would be… but… I miss cooking and baking.” Hansol looked over with a worried expression when he saw how the older one seemed to change his expression to a saddened one suddenly before Mingyu shook his head. “Ah, I guess that’s another story for another time.”

Hansol smiled before the elevator opened to the second floor. “Well, maybe we can talk about it? I’d love to hang out with you again, Hyung.” They quickly exchanged numbers, Mingyu holding the open button longer so that Hansol could type his number into Mingyu’s phone before handing it back. They waved before Hansol walked to his apartment and the elevator door closed. 

Mingyu sighed as he leaned back against the wall as the elevator continued to move up to the fourth floor. It opened up again and Mingyu stepped up and walked over to his apartment. As he opened the door, he couldn’t help but think about the lengthy conversation he held with Hansol about music. It’s not very often Mingyu is open to people about music, but it meant a lot to him more than people realized.

Music was the only thing to accompany Mingyu after the fire in the restaurant happened. It was the only shoulder he leaned on when he felt helpless and cried to himself when he felt guilty for not coming back from the grocery store sooner to stop the accident from happening. Music was the only thing that told Mingyu that his pain and guilt that he experienced when he saw the ambulance drive his grandmother to the hospital after being in the kitchen where the incident happened before she passed away on the hospital bed. He wasn’t sure if Hansol felt music the way he did, the same depth and level of solace he found within it, but he had a gut feeling Hansol understood. He had a feeling that Hansol shared something with him in terms of why music meant so much to them.

 

—

 

**I+III.**

 

Mingyu sighed at his desk before resting his chin against the inner palm of his left hand as his elbow leaned on his desk. His right pointer was slowly manoeuvring the scroller on his mouse as he was mumbling all of the numbers he had calculated on the spreadsheet to double check everything. It was all too arbitrary to him. He wasn't tired of it—especially since it paid his bills—but it wasn't exciting to him. It didn't set his endorphins rushing and tingling throughout his whole body like cooking did.

He goes onto his internet browser to type an email out to his boss with the spreadsheet as an attachment before sending it. Mingyu sighs and leans back, reminiscing about the previous night with his friends and his new friend Hansol. He checked the bottom right corner of his screen to see it was almost lunch time and decided to pull out his phone to check on Hansol. Mingyu wasn't sure if Hansol was in class or not, but he just wanted to have a chat. A casual chat. He hopes that he can have a deeper friendship with Hansol, but he knew this was the first step towards it. 

A crumpled up piece of paper hit the top of Mingyu’s head that caused him to yelp in exclamation. Minghao peaked his head over the cubicle barrier and snickered. “Oh, a direct shot. If only my shooting on the PC was this accurate.” He grinned when Mingyu groaned while he rolled his eyes. Minghao hummed as he rested his arms on the barrier. “Seokmin asked me to check his work as he went to our boss to discuss something. What are your lunch plans?”

Mingyu expected to feel a tupperware container in his bag but was surprised to not feel it inside. He opened his bag and looked in, hoping his hands were lying to him. But they weren't. He grunted, remembering he forgot to prepare anything because of how tired he was last night. Mingyu whined internally before looking up at Minghao with a sigh. It was a step forward that he went out to the coffee shop yesterday with his friends. He wasn't sure if he was pushing it if he were to go out to lunch with them. “I… forgot to pack.”

“Ah,” Minghao nodded. “Because of last night? That's understandable. Wanna join us? We're probably just gonna eat at the McDonald's below us to save money.” He snickered. He noticed how uneasy Mingyu seemed at the idea. Minghao knew it wasn't because Mingyu hated fast food because they had a full-on nightly discussion about the best fast food place for hangovers. It was probably something deeper, but Minghao didn't want to invade too much. “Well,” Minghao pulled his arms back to his sides, “feel free to join us. We'll probably be there the whole break.”

Mingyu nodded before Minghao’s head popped back down. He sighed in relief but pondered why Minghao suddenly changed his offer. He heard Seokmin come back and hushed voices exchanged between him and Minghao before the two walked over to the elevator to head down. Mingyu pouted. Maybe another time he would join them, preferably after he opens up to them about his reasoning. But for now, he would just settle with vending machine food.

He walked out of his cubicle and towards the vending machine area near the employee lounge. As he was walking, he saw a few people dressed up in business casual clothing right outside his boss’s office. “Newbies,” Mingyu mumbled to himself.  He remembered what it felt like to be in this situation. As much as he hated it, he was thankful he at least had a job. It still felt odd to him for not being in the kitchen.

The lounge wasn't too full with only a few other employees inside for their lunch break. Mingyu waved to a few of them that are in his department as he walked over to the vending machine. He sighed and scanned the food inside as he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. Mingyu settled on two cold cappuccinos and a bag of honey butter chips. He'll make up for his lack of a lunch with a nice convenience store run later when he goes back to his apartment. He was going to go straight back to his cubicle when he saw someone struggling with the coffee machine.

Mingyu walked over as he observed the well-dress stranger who looked too dressed up to be an employee. By the looks of it, Mingyu deduced the stranger was one of the few people who went in for a job interview. “Need a hand?” Mingyu offered.

The stranger looked over with a shock expression. “Um… yeah, I just don't know how to get the coffee filter inside to brew.” Mingyu showed him to pull up the handle where the filter holder was placed. “Oh,” the stranger blushed. “Sorry about that. I don't have anything like this.”

Mingyu grinned and shook his head. “It's no problem at all, you get used to it after working here for so long.” He instructed the other how the whole machine works before he watched the coffee filter out into the cup the office provided. The stranger smiled and thanked Mingyu. “No problem. I'm Mingyu by the way.”

“Wonwoo,” the other hummed. Wonwoo blew on his coffee and took a gentle sip before sighing in awe of the taste. “How long have you worked here?”

“Longer than I'd like to,” Mingyu joked. They both laughed before Mingyu cleared his throat. “You're trying for the finance department.”

“Yeah, I have a finance degree,” Wonwoo shrugged before taking another sip. “Figured I'd finally put it to use.”

“Oh, same,” Mingyu chuckled. “Well, I hope you get the call back. It'd be nice to have another person around my age. Most of my co-workers are around my parents age.”

Wonwoo snickered. “Aunties in finance are interesting though. My mom used to be an accountant and her stories were… something else.” They shared another laugh together before abruptly stopping it when they realized just how loud they were together. Wonwoo finished his cup and tossed into the recycling bin. He managed to throw it in directly and nodded to himself proudly.

Mingyu oohed in awe. “Wow, I always miss when I do that.” He and Wonwoo chuckled quietly this time before Mingyu checked his watch. “Oh, I should head back to my cube.” He quickly grabbed his drinks and bag of chips before turning back to Wonwoo to give an encouraging smile. “I hope you get it.”

Wonwoo nodded and waved off the acquaintance he had just met. He sighed to himself in relief, thankful that Soonyoung pushed him to attend this job interview. Wonwoo walked to the elevator to head back to the apartment before his phone rang. He groaned, knowing it was Soonyoung. He tapped the button to go down as he pulled his phone out to answer. “You're on break earlier than I expected,” Wonwoo said.

Soonyoung yawned on the other line. “Yeah, our meeting ended quicker than I had imagined. Are you still waiting to get called in?”

The elevator opened and Wonwoo stepped in before tapping the ground floor button and watching the elevator close in front of him. He smiled when he heard the soft elevator music. “I just finished actually.”

“Oh, how was it?”

Wonwoo shrugged. “Better than I expected. I got some coffee from the lounge because I knew it would be free but an employee caught me.” He chuckled. “He helped me out though. That was nice of him.”

Soonyoung grinned. “That's great! Look, you already made a friend.”

“He's more of an acquaintance,” Wonwoo hummed. “But yeah, he was nice. He's in the finance department too.”

“Oh, maybe this is a sign you'll get the job then!” He noticed how quiet Wonwoo was on the line. “Wonwoo, are you still having your doubts?”

“How can I not doubt myself?” Wonwoo sighed. “I know this is the furthest I've ever gotten with applying for a job, but…”

“Wonwoo,” Soonyoung pouted. “Please, have at least a little bit of hope. You even found someone in your department you talked to easily. I think you have a shot.” Wonwoo sighed and Soonyoung ruffled his hair with a bit of annoyance. “Just… try to relax when you get home.”

Wonwoo nodded as he was tapping his foot to the music. “Can do.” They bid their farewells before hanging up. He knew how annoyed Soonyoung was with him but he couldn't help these thoughts sometimes. Especially since his tainted record always ruined his chances with job applications. The music seemed to calm him down though. 

The elevator reached the bottom floor and opened its doors. Wonwoo stepped out and headed outside the building. He pulled over and rummaged through the messanger bag across his chest to find his pack of cigarettes. He pulled the box out once he felt it and opened it, only to realize he found chocolate candies inside with a note from Soonyoung reading ‘we need to talk.’ 

Wonwoo groaned to himself. He didn't expect Soonyoung to find out about his old bad habits coming back from how subtle he was trying to be sneaking around with it. Hoping to find the lighter in his bag instead—with the intent to buy a box of cigarettes at a nearby store—Wonwoo was disappointed to find a USB. “Shit, he knows me too well,” Wonwoo sighed.

He slung his bag back over his shoulder and made his way back to the apartment. There was no use in spending money on both items just for a quick smoke, especially if he was going to get a lecture from Soonyoung afterwards. Wonwoo walked down to the underground station to make a quicker trip back but looked at the map and decided to take the train going in the opposite direction. He usually doesn't go outside omit to when he went to the convenience store near the apartment, he figured he might as enjoy his time out.

Wonwoo scanned his pass, walked inside the train, and settled down in a seat. He looked around and saw it wasn't too packed, probably because people were having their lunch break. An elder woman walked inside and Wonwoo quickly stood up to offer her his seat. She smiled and squeezed his arm—a sign of a ‘thank you’—before she sat. Wonwoo smiled and sighed as he stood next to the door. “There's a seat next to me,” she spoke.

Wonwoo looked over but declined the offer kindly. He looked to see the auntie was still patting the seat next to her. He smiled and sat down and sighed as his legs got a break. “Thank you.”

“You're welcome,” she smiled. “Did you finish work early?”

Blinking confused. Wonwoo looked down and realized just how much he stood out with the full suit. He grumbled to himself before shaking out of it and shook his head shyly. “N-no, I just came from a job interview actually.”

“Oh,” she blinked. She smiled though. “Well, in that case, I hope you get it.” The train stopped at the next station and she stood up, with Wonwoo offering his arm as something to hold onto to help. “Oh, you really are a sweetheart,” she hummed. Wonwoo blushed at the compliment and she waved before exiting. 

He stayed in his seat and pulled out his phone and his earphones. Humming to himself as he unwinded the wires looping his phone, Wonwoo looked over and saw a couple of teenagers on the far side of the train. He pouted a bit before plugging the earphones into his ears, knowing that they were probably skipping school. Wonwoo continued to observe their behaviour, how they would constantly push each other around or flick each others foreheads. He knows it’s wrong to judge, especially a few kids, but he’s been in that situation. Wonwoo tried to ignore them as he played a song on his phone.

Wonwoo leaned back as the train kept stopping at its stops and passengers came in and out. He wasn’t sure which stop he would get off of to start exploring, but he felt like he would know when he should get off. Rather than scroll through his social media, he opted out for watching his surroundings. His eyes always drifted towards the group of teenagers. He pulled an earphone out as he surrendered to his curiosity and decided to eavesdrop on what they were saying. At the next stop, rather than getting off, he got up from his seat and stood closer to the kids as more people filtered in.

The beats and melody were slowly drowning out as Wonwoo listened to what the kids were talking about. He pouted more. Their conversation hit home far too deep into Wonwoo’s past. He wanted to say something to the kids, but he would seem like that weird, nosy uncle. Glancing over, he noticed one of the teenagers was uneasy. With the timid way he was rubbing his arm, not participating in the conversation with the others, and anxiously glancing around as if he felt guilty he was going to get in trouble, Wonwoo immediately sympathized with him as he was in those exact same shoes.

The teenagers walked towards the door and went out at the next stop. On impulse, Wonwoo decided to get off as well. He was going to get off the stop anyway. Exiting out of the subway station upstairs towards the town, Wonwoo sighed in disappointment as he saw the bunch of young students walk straight to a convenience store pulling out a card from their pocket. He knew those were fake IDs to get alcohol or cigarettes. Wonwoo walked the opposite direction. 

He pulled out his earphones and decided to listen to the surrounding noises of the city-esque town area. It wasn’t like Hongdae that was filled with teenagers and young adults, nor was it like Gangnam with rich business men and people who were dressed to impress. The environment was mostly family oriented, probably since there were so many schools in the district. Despite it being different and unfamiliar, Wonwoo felt comforted by it. He was confused as to why the teenagers decided to stop here, out of all places, to get their fix on the substances.

Wonwoo recalls to the same situation during his last year of high school. He didn’t realize it at the time, but he didn’t have the best influenced friends as they usually skipped school, illegally obtained drugs and alcohol, and constantly berated their own families. Wonwoo forgot why he started hanging out with them, especially since he was a bright student with a good reputation with his teachers and had a loving and healthy relationship with his parents. That was all tossed under the bus when him and his friends were arrested for underage drinking. 

It was, for a lack of better words, traumatizing to remember as his friends would blame Wonwoo for influencing them rather than the actual truth. Wonwoo received harsher fines and punishment as he was suspended from school for a week and it was put in his academic and criminal records. His so called “friends” also ditched him afterwards, knowing that Wonwoo had such a bad reputation in school now and they couldn’t risk the idea of being caught again as they might be expelled.

Despite this, however, Wonwoo was thankful that his parents were understanding of why it happened and tried to help him as best as they could. They suggested that Wonwoo switch schools to start off clean, but it was his last year anyway so Wonwoo decided to just stick it out until the end. His academic grades didn’t decline either. Wonwoo didn’t tell his teachers as much information as he did to his parents, but they knew Wonwoo had a good heart. Wonwoo couldn’t have asked for a better supportive group of adults.

Nonetheless, he was lonely. He lost his only friend group and students would not dare to approach him with what they’ve heard from the rumours that spread around. As much as Wonwoo wanted to have friends, he knew that the events written in his records were going to make his chances in his future difficult, especially as he was preparing for his college entrance exam. Wonwoo focused on school. He knew that despite his records, that colleges would be willing to overlook it if his academics were top notch. Instead of after school curriculars, Wonwoo spent his time picking up private tutoring sessions; instead of spending time on weekends hanging out with friends, he read novels and studied additional lessons and subjects. All the while, music was his only accompaniment. His parents saw this and suggested that he take a break but they saw the look on their son’s face when he said that this was something he  _ had _ to do. 

Wonwoo graduated top of his class and managed to get into a highly-reputable university, compared to his old friends who had to repeat high school. He felt the anger and resentment when his homeroom teacher boasted about Wonwoo’s university acceptance and graduation accompaniment. As a reward for his hard work, his parents gifted him a music service subscription so that Wonwoo could listen to music clearer and anywhere he had his phone. It was a small gift, but it was something that meant the world to him. He was glad his parents understood his love for music. His only friend.

University wasn’t as bad as high school. It proved to be the fresh, new chapter that Wonwoo needed. It was in his required astronomy class that he met Kwon Soonyoung, a friend who he was going to stay with for a long time afterwards. They connected well and started bonding almost everyday. Wonwoo was especially grateful at the fact that Soonyoung didn’t give off the bad vibes as his previous friends had. Four years of university passed by quickly for the two of them before they decided to share an apartment together as roommates. With Soonyoung’s exercise science degree, it was easy for him to find a job nearby. However, Wonwoo had a difficult time.

Wonwoo had trouble attaining internships during the summers and breaks over the course of his university career, which meant he gained no experience in the finance field, which proved to be more hurtful to his resume as much as his past records from his adolescent years. Soonyoung knew this too, but he wanted to help Wonwoo as best as he could. He helped Wonwoo become a librarian assistant, a barista, and a teaching assistant, but none proved to be fulfilling according to Wonwoo’s standards. He knew that they were good positions and paid the bills, but if he had to do it for the rest of his life, Wonwoo was going to go mad. Though he appreciated Soonyoung’s efforts, he knew he had to find another job.

It was a challenge. Soonyoung and Wonwoo ended up moving farther from their original apartment to where they currently are to save up in terms of rent. Soonyoung managed to find another job but Wonwoo still had difficulty in the new area. Ever since then, Wonwoo has been applying for anything relating to accounting online or on fliers he walked by. It was draining, especially with how many times nobody responded back or replied stating that the position was already filled. He spent most of his alone time in his apartment as Soonyoung worked the usual nine to five shift. And, as it was in his teenage years, the only thing to accompany Wonwoo was his music.

He snapped out of his thoughts and flashbacks when he recognized a familiar street. It wasn’t long before it hit Wonwoo that he was nearing his neighborhood. Wonwoo hadn’t realized he was so deep into his thoughts that he completely disregarded the scenery and atmosphere that he bypassed. He made a mental note to do this another day so that he could really clear his mind from the past, but maybe looking back into the past was something he needed to do on account he hadn’t done so for the past year.

The sun was almost setting already and Wonwoo felt his stomach grumble, realizing it was almost time to eat. Rather than stopping by the convenience store, Wonwoo walked straight to his apartment. He entered and smiled and waved at the concierge who was busy trying to calm down an elder resident that was complaining about a room that had their television too loud. Wonwoo stood in front of the elevator and waited, gasping that he went this walk without music filling his ears. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and pouted realizing his phone had already died, probably because his music was playing so softly that it drained his battery.

“Oh?” a familiar voice called out. Wonwoo turned and, to his surprise, saw Mingyu walking towards the elevator. They both had the same shocked expression on their faces before Mingyu smiled. “I didn’t realize you lived here.” It was a good few seconds as they were flustered at the sudden meeting of each other again before the elevator ding interrupted their thoughts. They stepped into the elevator and Wonwoo coughed awkwardly and replied with his floor number as Mingyu tapped the floor buttons. “Wow, we really never bumped into each other?”

Wonwoo shook his head. “No, never. And we’ve been living in the same building… probably for a while too.” They both snickered, still a bit flustered. He looked over at Wonwoo who was tapping his foot to the elevator music. Wonwoo smiled to see that Mingyu enjoyed the music just as much as him. “So you work at the company as an accountant, right?”

Mingyu nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been there since the business started.” He turned and made eye contact with Wonwoo before humming in thought. “You know, if you want a position I could put in a good word for my boss. It’d help to get to know you a bit better though,” Mingyu snickered.

“Are you implying we should hang out?” Wonwoo asked. Neither spoke for a good few seconds before chuckling together, Mingyu nodding in response. “Okay, I don’t mind that. It’d be nice to hang out with an apartment neighbor.” 

They exchanged numbers before the elevator door opened and Wonwoo waved. Mingyu waved back and smiled until the door closed. He sighed in relief. “It’d be good to have another friend at work,” he mumbled to himself. “Especially in finance.” It’s not that he was lonely, but he couldn’t exactly relate to the aunties and uncles in his department who were financially stable, married, and even had kids. He was the youngest and if he could have another young adult with him, it’d make work a little more bearable. Mingyu walked down the hall to his room and unlocked it with his key with a sigh. “He seemed to like music too,” Mingyu mumbled. 

He remembers how he felt something when it came to Hansol about music. Maybe something would come out of it with Wonwoo as well. As if by divine timing, Mingyu’s phone buzzed. He jolted as he pulled it out of his dress pants after changing into his sweats and smiled as he saw an apologetic and full text from Hansol saying it was a busy class day for him. Mingyu chuckled and texted him back before another message popped up from Wonwoo’s number as well. He  _ knew _ something would come out of these newly started friendships.

 

—

 

**I+IV.**

 

Hansol knew his mental health was improving. Especially since he has been talking more often to Mingyu, his neighbor two floors above him. He regrets not being able to get Seungcheol’s number, but the fact that he knew which floor and room he lived on was enough of an initiative to get to know him. He knows that talking and spending time with people that weren’t Seungkwan or Chan would be a good step forward to leaving his comfort zone. 

However, it still proved to be difficult. Hansol caught himself more than once making excuses to text Mingyu which often led to a large hour or two gap between replies. He also kept pushing off the idea of visiting Seungcheol despite being so close to him out of fear. He knew his fear was irrational, he knew he had to get over it, but he knew he couldn’t achieve getting over it so quickly. Hansol knew the process was going to be long and difficult, but he still wanted to try, especially because Mingyu and Seungcheol seemed like people he could be around and could trust, a rare feeling that Hansol encounters.

It was a rather lonely night for Hansol. Instead of deciding to hang out with Chan and Seungkwan at their apartment, he went home for some alone time. He was grateful that his friends always offered their apartment for him to stay at, even offering for him to live with them, but Hansol wanted a space to himself. Hansol, despite his fears of being judged and being lonely, liked his alone time where he could be his unique self. He turned up the music on his phone to fill his apartment to accompany him, which proved to always make him feel less lonely. It was around eleven at night when Hansol walked from his living room where his laptop was towards the kitchen to find something to eat.

He was currently working on lyrics for his next writing assignment. Simultaneously, Hansol was also looking up different music programs to use. He thought about Seungcheol’s advice on the train about making his own music and decided that maybe he should actually try it out. The only problem was that Hansol had no experience with music programs nor creating anything. He had little to no knowledge when it came to music theory as well. He wasn’t sure which chords blended well together, he didn’t know what any music dynamic meant. Hansol was completely clueless in the composing realm. 

He opened his fridge as he was bobbing his head to the melody that surrounded him and blinked at how empty his fridge seemed. Scratching his head, he mumbled to himself. “I thought I bought groceries last week.” Hansol shook his head, failing to realize how he doesn’t buy groceries as often as he’d thought. He pulled back and closed the fridge before grabbing a sticky note to write down what he needed to buy. The grocery store was probably closed by now since it was so late. The only store that would be open this late with food that he needed to buy was the convenience store nearby. 

After writing down what he needed, he paused his music from his laptop, closed the screen, slung on a hoodie, and slipped on his shoes before leaving his apartment. Hansol hesitated to lock the door with the thought that he should bring his earphones so he could listen to music on his phone as he walked. However, he locked the door behind him as he walked to the elevator. Hansol figured he would take Seungkwan up on his suggestion to listen to the world around him. 

As he exited the elevator on the ground floor, he waved at the concierge who seemed surprised to see Hansol without earphones as he waved back. (This was probably the first time the concierge has ever seen Hansol’s face not glued to his phone without his earphones plugged in.) It wasn’t that long of a walk to the convenience store, so Hansol definitely didn’t mind walking without his music. But it definitely felt awkward for him. He was so used to the security blanket that was music that he basically felt naked without it. Hansol never turned around and walked back into the apartment once he left though. He continued to walk to the convenient store and try to observe the world around him.

The world was dark. It was almost midnight and the only thing that allowed him to see were the dimly lit street lamps and the few store signs that were still on. There weren’t many cars on the road either, though that was to be expected since the area he lived in wasn’t too crowded anyway. He still looked both ways before crossing the street, a habit Hansol had always kept ever since he was a child abroad. It wasn’t often that he reminisced his childhood, but when the environment proved to be as uninteresting as the nighttime was, Hansol couldn’t help but to walk back to memory lane.

Growing up abroad in a country that was considered the melting pot full of dreams and hopes was interesting to say the least. He was born in one of the busiest and liveliest cities in the world. Hansol could only vaguely remember what New York City was like though. To him, it proved to be just as much of an ordinary city as Seoul is to him now. However, Hansol vividly remembers the first time he walked passed a cafe playing soft jazz music in the background.

He was about three or four at the time when he was holding his mother’s hand at a crosswalk in the tourist trap area. Looking around, Hansol remember how big everything and everyone was from his view from below. He stayed close to his mother, especially close when they were finally allowed to cross the street. He tried to match his smaller footsteps to hers, almost losing his own pace in the process. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard the sound of a trumpet coming from the cafe a few blocks down. Hansol remembers how the sound began to grow louder and how the trumpet had more friends that played along with it. The sound of the tenor saxophone, the bass guitar, and the drum set soon joined in and also began to sound louder before he approached the cafe. He stopped in his tracks after pulling on his mother’s hand, which made her stop as well. She glanced down but smiled to see how entranced and intrigued her son was at the music. They stood in front of the cafe and peaked through the window, looking beyond the coffee drinkers and chatty customers and towards the band that was playing on the small, makeshift stage in the far left corner. 

Hansol smiled. He saw how the musicians played so eloquently and yet so humbly and blissfully. It was his first time ever listening to music up close and personal. He remembers how his mother asked if he wanted to enter the cafe but Hansol was too timid to want to as he shook his head and clung to his mother’s leg. She giggled to herself, but understood how interested her son had been to the sounds. He remembers asking her after the musicians finished playing two songs and they continued to walk back to their apartment about the music, about why the people in the cafe didn’t seem as intrigued by the music as him.

“Maybe you have a special gift,” she replied. Hansol looked up at her, with eyes full of hope and astonishment, as if she had at that very moment triggered the gears in Hansol’s mind to start turning with the interest to discover what music was all about and what he could do with the medium. 

He reached the convenient store and nodded over at the cashier he always sees during the night. Hansol wasn’t exactly sure if he was the only cashier at the store, but he seemed like he was since he was the only cashier he has ever seen during any hour he came to buy food. He took a basket and rummaged through his jacket’s pockets to search for the post-it note with his grocery list. He gasped when he saw the napkin with the lyrics and ideas he wrote a few days back dropped. Hansol quickly picked it up and put it back in his jacket before he pulled the list out. 

Hansol started grabbing the few produce the store offered before going to the snack section and pulling bags of chips and cups of noodles that he usually ate. He calculated in his head the estimated total of everything as he was still trying to save money on account he only received a set amount of money from his parents every month. 

His eyes gazed over the list and saw that he still had a few items to get, mostly those that were in the refrigerated section. Walking over, he gasped at the realization that he forgot to include almond milk onto his list. Hansol has always drank that as an alternative to cow milk as it didn’t make his stomach upset in comparison. He opened the door of one of the fridge door’s to grab the almond milk when he saw another hand reach out for it.

He blinked to himself before turning a look to the stranger who was also reaching out for it and was also just so happening to look at Hansol at the same time. They both stood there, a bit awkwardly, with their hands extended and the cold air from the fridge filling the aisle. Hansol coughed to interrupt the silence before he spoke. “Are you getting the almond milk?”

“Yeah,” the stranger nodded. “I guess you are too, huh?”

Hansol nodded back, a bit slower than the stranger had just done. “Y-you can have it if you want,” he offered hesitantly.

“No, you can have it,” the stranger shook his head. “I can just get coconut milk or soy milk tomorrow.” Hansol blinked at the stranger's offer before the stranger pulled their hand away and motioned Hansol to grab the carton. It was a hesitant stretch, but Hansol grabbed the milk and put it in his basket, watching the stranger pass him as he walked behind him. Hansol’s head was turned as he watched before he closed the fridge door. 

He walked towards the counter with his basket as the cashier smiled at him. Hansol watched as he scanned the items and started putting them into the plastic bags. “Did you get the last milk?” Hansol tilted his head before the cashier repeated his sentence. “Did you get the last carton of almond milk?”

“Oh,” Hansol responded before clearing his throat. “Y-yeah. There was another guy who wanted it to, but he let me have the last one. Ah, when do you guys usually restock on that?”

The cashier shrugged. “Not often on account you are the only two who ever visit and buy this milk. That’s why we only have about four cartons there per week.” Hansol blinked at the shocking fact about his strange similar purchases with the stranger he had just ran into. The cashier rang up the total and Hansol handed over his card as he was looking through the bags to make sure he had everything on his list.

He felt a tap on his back and Hansol jumped from shock. Turning around, he saw the stranger with a napkin in his hand. “You dropped this. It seems important.” Hansol looked down to see the idea napkin in the strangers hand. He gasped and received it with both hands, a sigh in relief escaped his mouth before he thanked the stranger. “No problem,” he smiled. “Wouldn’t want you to lose your ideas like that.”

Hansol looked over at the stranger, probably a bit taken back at the fact that he probably looked over Hansol’s notes without his permission. (Though, to be fair, it did fall out of his pocket so it was technically available for anybody’s reading.) After paying and grabbing his bags, Hansol made his way out as the stranger started paying for his items.

As soon as Hansol left, he gazed up at the sky, seeing as it was still dark as ever. He sighed, realizing he couldn’t check what time it was nor even play the music at a soft volume to keep him company on his walk back as both hands were preoccupied with plastic bags. However, the walk back to the apartment was much quicker, so he didn’t have to fret too much. He entered through the doors and nodded over at the concierge before Hansol stopped in his tracks when he was called over. Blinking confused, he slowly walked over and gave a small smile. “Yes sir?”

“Say, you’re pretty young, right Hansol?” Mr. Song asked from behind his desk. Hansol could barely see the elder gentleman due to how tall the counter was and how Mr. Song was sitting down. Hansol tilted his head a bit, not sure how old Mr. Song thought he was (probably thought he was a high schooler, to be honest on account of his baby face). “What do you think I should get my son for his birthday? He reminds me of you.” 

Hansol wasn’t sure if he should take that as a compliment or not. He also wasn’t sure what Mr. Song thought of him as they have never talked prior to this conversation omit when Hansol first moved in to the apartment about a year ago. “Uh… maybe a notebook? Or a set of headphones?”

“The headphones seem like a good idea,” a voice said from behind. Mr. Song stood up a bit as Hansol turned his head to see who was talking. His eyes widened when the stranger from the convenience store walked over with his own bag of groceries towards the concierge desk. “I got a nice set of headphones when I was a high schooler from my parents and I still use them to this day.”

“Oh!” Mr. Song smiled in exclamation. “Thank you, Wonwoo. Oh, and of course thanks to you too, Hansol.” 

Hansol blinked and nodded slowly before taking an awkward turn and gritted his teeth how Wonwoo and him were walking the same pace side-by-side towards the elevator to go to their place. Wonwoo tapped the button to go up with his free hand as he shoved it into his pocket before looking over at Hansol who tried to ignore the fact that they had previously met a few minutes ago. “Funny seeing you again, huh?” Wonwoo asked.

Hansol finally turned over and relaxed his muscles when he realized that the atmosphere was no longer awkward. He internally sighed in relief as he nodded. “Yeah, I didn’t expect to be apartment neighbors with you.”

“I didn’t either,” Wonwoo blinked, still in a state of disbelief. The elevator doors slid open and they both stepped inside, coughing a bit flustered from the situation. Wonwoo pressed his floor number after Hansol pressed his floor—as he bent down and pushed it with his nose—before rubbing the back of his head. “You know what’s strange?” Wonwoo asked. “This has been happening for the past few days.”

“What has?” Hansol tilted his head.

“I’ve run into people and they all just so happened—”

“—to live in the same apartment?” Hansol interrupted. Wonwoo’s eyes widened and shot at Hansol quickly who smiled shyly. “Yeah, it’s been happening to me too. First, I ran into someone on the fourth floor at a cafe. Then, I met someone who lived on the fifth floor. And now—”

“Wait,” Wonwoo interrupted as he blinked a bit surprised before tilting his head a bit. “Sorry to interrupt, but—this person on the fifth floor. Did you meet them, by chance, because of… music?”

“Whoa,” Hansol’s eyes widened once again. “Yeah, that’s exactly why I met him. That’s why I met the other one too. Ah, maybe you know him? He works at a company in the finance department and—”

“Mingyu,” Wonwoo replied. He jumped a bit when Hansol screamed surprised. Wonwoo snickered before nodding. “Yeah, I got his number the other day actually because he just so happened to work at a company I got a job interview from.”

“Oh, wow! Really? That’s amazing,” grinned Hansol. “I hope you get the job. Ah, I wish I could get a job but knowing me, I wouldn’t be able to balance it with my schoolwork.”

“You’re still in school?”

“Well, yeah. But I’m not as young as Mr. Song thinks I am,” Hansol snickered. “I go to the university that’s a few subway stops away from here.” Wonwoo nodded. “Actually, you mention that you met Mingyu Hyung the other day. Did you two talk about music?”

Wonwoo shook his head. “We just talked about work. But, I do have his number. Why? Is he into music as much as Seungcheol Hyung?”

Hansol dropped one bag of groceries to snap his fingers at the sound of the fifth floor resident’s name before he picked it back up shyly. “Yeah! I talked to both of them about music. With Mingyu Hyung, we just talked about the live band because, well, I don’t really get to talk about bands with my other friends. And with Seungcheol Hyung, we talked about this one artist that a lot of people dislike for no-good-damn-reason and don’t appreciate him enough.” 

From all of the enthusiasm that radiated from Hansol, Wonwoo could tell that Hansol was passionate about music. “Are you a music major or something?”

Realizing how excited he sounded, Hansol stopped and blushed shyly. “Ah, no. I’m an English major, but my focus is Creative Writing.”

“That makes sense,” Wonwoo nodded. “By the way, we’re on the top floor now.” Hansol blinked. He turned to see the elevator on the ninth floor of the apartment. Wonwoo chuckled as Hansol grimaced to himself. He reached over and tapped the third and second floor button to close the elevator and make it move back down. “It’s no big deal,” he shrugged, “we were just really into our conversation is all. So, I guess I can talk to Mingyu about music too, huh?”

Hansol nodded. “Yeah, he seems to know a lot. Ah, maybe I can text him more about music too. We’ve just really been getting to know each other in general over text.”

The elevator door opened to the third floor and Wonwoo looked at Hansol as he slowly stepped out. “Well, then maybe we can arrange for something so that the four of us can talk about music together, don’t you think? I think that’d be nice.” Hansol gasped and nodded, his eyes twinkling with excitement. He waved happily with his left hand that was still holding the bag of groceries before the elevator door closed. Wonwoo chuckled. He only knew Hansol for a little bit over an hour, but he could already tell that Hansol was a good kid and would make a good friend. 

Walking to his door and unlocking it, he heard Soonyoung snoring from the living room. Wonwoo set the groceries on the counter and walked over to the couch and saw Soonyoung passed out on the couch wearing his hoodie and sweats and a bowl of cereal on the coffee table. 

“He was waiting for me,” Wonwoo whispered to himself. He quickly went back to the kitchen to put the groceries into the fridge and pantry before rushing to his room to change into house clothes and grab two blankets. Afterwards, he walked back to the living room and set aside one of the blankets on the other couch before draping the other one over Soonyoung’s back. Wonwoo put the cereal bowl into the sink before going back to lie down on the other couch. He looked over at Soonyoung and sighed. “Maybe things are brightening up for me, Soon,” he whispered. Wonwoo slowly closed his eyes as a small smile appeared on his face. “Maybe the new chapter of my life starts now.”

 

—

 

**II+III.**

 

Seungcheol blushed shyly when his hand caressed the back of Jisoo’s hand. He quickly pulled it back to his side and turned his head with flushed cheeks before Jisoo could look over and see. Jisoo smiled and looked down at Seungcheol’s hand fidgeting in his pocket before Jisoo pulled it out. Seungcheol immediately turned when he felt the softness of Jisoo’s skin against his and the rush of endorphins from his body scrambling throughout his whole body. Jisoo laced their fingers together before looking back ahead and humming as they kept walking. Seungcheol didn’t realize he was walking as stiff as a robot until Jisoo squeezed his hand. He jumped and looked over as Jisoo giggled, making Seungcheol extra stiff. “Relax,” Jisoo hummed. “We’re just taking a walk.”

“Right, right. Just relax.” Seungcheol nodded. He rolled his shoulders back and exhaled deeply. Squeezing Jisoo’s hand back as he looked at their hands together, he smiled to himself. “I’m always relaxed when I’m with you.” He laughed aloud when Jisoo bumped shoulders with him, almost making Seungcheol lose his balance. “Hey!”

Jisoo chuckled with Seungcheol. “I got that from you,” he hummed. “Where’s this place you wanted to take me too, again?”

“We’re almost there,” Seungcheol replied with a blissful smile. “One of my new friends told me about it. I’d take Jihoon, but he has a bunch of deadlines coming up. So, might as well take my boyfriend, hm?”

“Wow, taking me instead of your best friend?” Jisoo gasped jokingly while gripping the part of his shirt over his chest dramatically, “I am honoured.” He laughed when Seungcheol nudged him with his elbow. “Thank you though. Maybe you can take Jihoon with you the next time? Well, if we like it I guess.”

Seungcheol nodded. “Yeah, that was the plan. Bring Jihoon here if it’s to our liking,” he snickered. They turned the corner and Seungcheol pointed out how it was just up ahead and across the street. Once they were up to the door, they let go of each other’s hands so that Seungcheol could hold the door open for Jisoo. Jisoo scrunched his nose as Seungcheol grinned back cheekily. “I know it’s something you usually do, but I can be a gentleman too!” He whined when Jisoo rolled his eyes as a joke back before walking ahead of Seungcheol.

Their hands tied back to each other once they were inside. Jisoo glanced over at the menu but squealed surprised when Seungcheol pulled him over at a table near the window. He smiled when Seungcheol motioned for Jisoo to sit down first. Sitting down, he hummed in content as he adjusted his seat and gazed out the window. “Oh, this is perfect for people watching. Inside and outside.”

Smiling proudly, Seungcheol rubbed the back of his neck, “yeah, I figured it would be a good spot for people watching since you do it so often.” Jisoo looked up at him and smiled, sending Seungcheol’s heart racing before he coughed. “Do you want me to get your usual?”

Jisoo blinked. “You know my usual?”

“It’s an americano with a bit of whip on the top, right?”

“Oh,” Jisoo gasped, “stop! You’re going to make me fall for you even more!” They both laughed as their cheeks turned rosy before Seungcheol walked over to the counter.

He was humming to himself as he was waiting for the cashier to get back to the register after discussing an order of the previous customer. Normally, Seungcheol would wait impatiently and tap his foot on the floor while simultaneously tapping his fingers on the counter. It was different today. In fact, it was always different when it came to Jisoo. They’ve only been together for a few weeks and Seungcheol feels like they’ve known each other much longer. Though it was still a new relationship, he already felt like it would be better and last longer than the previous one. But even with that thought, he tries not to think about the previous one too much as it brings up way too many heartaches to count.

His thoughts were interrupted when Seungcheol finally heard the cashier calling for his attention. He shook his head and looked at her dazed as she blinked and raised an eyebrow before calming her expression and smiling at him. “What can I get you?”

He smiled and placed in the order for both him and Jisoo. Seungcheol slid his card and signed the receipt as he took the customer copy when the cashier handed it over. She wrote his name on the two cups before handing over a pager as well. After thanking her and exchanging a somewhat awkward bow, Seungcheol walked over to the table to see Jisoo busy texting on his phone. He sat down on the opposite end of the table and leaned his elbow against the table as he smiled and gazed at Jisoo lovingly. “You seem busy.”

Jisoo nodded as his eyes were still on his phone before he locked it and looked up at Seungcheol, almost a bit surprised to see the way Seungcheol was looking at him. He smiled. “Yeah, just texted Jihoon.”

“Wow, seems like you two are getting along then, huh?” Seungcheol smiled proudly.

“Yeah, I’m glad you gave our numbers to each other. It’s nice to talk about music with someone who also has a music degree.” Jisoo didn’t realize Seungcheol’s pout when he checked his phone before he glanced back up and cooed. “Aw, babe. No, I like talking about music with you too. In fact, I don’t really talk in depth about music with anyone except my college friends, you, and Jihoon.”

“Does that mean I’m special?” Seungcheol pursed his lips with puppy eyes, earning a cute squeal and cheek pat from his boyfriend. They smiled at each other lovingly before Seungcheol jumped from the harsh vibration sound and feel of the pager moving around on the table. Jisoo smiled and picked it up as he stood up.

“I’ll get it. You just stay here, babe,” Jisoo grinned. He walked over to the counter to pick up the tray as Seungcheol sighed in awe. Seungcheol was definitely imagining he was in it for the long run with Jisoo. 

Jisoo grabbed the trays and carefully went to grab napkins and spoons from the self-serve table when he noticed a familiar looking stranger who picked up his own cup of coffee to go. Jisoo’s eyes followed as the stranger sat down at the table behind where him and Seungcheol were sitting. Seungcheol was too into his phone and his back was turned to the stranger to really realize any of this was happening. Jisoo came back to Seungcheol and placed the tray on the table. Slowly, he sat down, with his gaze on the stranger who was facing his direction but looked the other way to notice he was staring.

“Babe?” Seungcheol called out. 

“Huh?” Jisoo blinked as he was brought back into reality. He shook his head. “Sorry, the person behind you just looked really familiar… Oh, babe don’t look back so suddenly!” Jisoo cried out softly as he reached over to grab Seungcheol’s arm and squeezed it. “That’d be too obvious.”

“Well, how else am I supposed to see him?” Seungcheol whined.

Jisoo couldn’t help but smile at how cute his boyfriend acts when these sort of situations happen. “Just look out the window and check through your peripherals.”

Rolling his eyes, Seungcheol nodded. He looked outside to see the people walking around and casually took a sip of his coffee. He grimaced when he realized it was too hot to handle at the moment and accidentally burned his tongue. Seungcheol blushed a bit when he heard Jisoo’s muffled snicker before he checked the sides of his eye to see the stranger. He tilted his head a bit before facing back to his boyfriend. “Actually, he looks familiar to me too, now that you mention it.”

“Oh, that’s so funny,” Jisoo blinked in amazement at the phenomena. “Did we bump into him on a date? Because I feel like… I knew him before then.”

“Didn’t you say you haven’t really gone out and about since you moved here like two months ago?” Seungcheol asked. Jisoo nodded and Seungcheol placed his coffee back down on its tiny plate before scratching his cheek. “Then… then that doesn’t make sense.”

Trying to act casual, Jisoo leaned a bit to his left to look past Seungcheol at the stranger. “We could always ask him,” Jisoo suggested.

“Oh, and you told  _ me _ to be subtle?” Seungcheol joked, earning a smile from Jisoo who shrugged. 

“I figured that we might as well be direct right now. Oh, wait, is it weird to approach a stranger here? I kind of forgot the social norms… I’m still used to being an American, I guess.”

Seungcheol sighed and stretched his arms forward before shrugging back. “Honestly, you might as well ask directly. I feel like it’d be better for us since we’re the type to like immediate answers.” They both giggled before Jisoo nodded and got up to walk over to the stranger. Seungcheol couldn’t help but be embarrassed at the situation he was placed in with his boyfriend, but he really had no reason to feel this way since it was only between three people. The worst thing that could happen is that the stranger just thinks him and Jisoo are weird and he just gets up to leave and they never speak to him again.

He was shocked to feel a tap on his shoulders. Seungcheol turned around to see Jisoo smiling at him, a sight Seungcheol never grew tired of no matter how many times it happened. Jisoo looked over back at the stranger, which caused Seungcheol to make direct contact with the stranger as well, who surprisingly gasped. “Oh, yeah I think we’re neighbors,” the stranger concluded.

Instantly, Seungcheol shot Jisoo a confused glance. “I asked him if he worked at a cafe or something a few years ago and he told me that he owned a cafe with his family when I used to live here,” Jisoo explained. “Then I asked if you looked familiar and I just made you turn around so he could see your face.”

Seungcheol stood up from his seat and reached out his hand to the stranger to formally greet him. 

They had a firm handshake and bowed politely before Seungcheol said his name to introduce himself. “Oh, I’m Kim Mingyu,” Mingyu smiled back. “I think we pass by each other around the elevator at the apartment,” he mentioned.

“Oh!” Seungcheol gasped as he snapped his fingers at the realization. “Yeah, you’re the one who’s dressed up and always leaves with a briefcase and has another elevator button pressed other than the ground floor.”

Mingyu whined but nodded. He invited Jisoo and Seungcheol to join him at his table and the two quickly moved their drinks and tray over to sit with him. “So,” Jisoo hummed as he blew on his cup of coffee before taking a sip, “I’m assuming you don’t work at a cafe anymore?”

He freezed with his own coffee cup upon his lips after hearing those words, but Mingyu took a quick sip before placing it down. He nodded. “Y-yeah, we had to close it down and we never opened it again. Now, I have a job at a mortgage company in the finance company.”

“Hm, that doesn’t sound as exciting,” Seungcheol commented before scratching his arm under the table. “But then again, I work at an engineering firm. It puts bread on the table and that’s the only thing that matters, huh?” Mingyu laughed and nodded before him and Seungcheol high fived from understanding each other. Jisoo couldn’t help but smile to see his boyfriend so energized. It might be the coffee, from the new company, or maybe even a mixture of both, but it was a rare sight to see Seungcheol genuinely enjoy someone else’s company other than Jisoo’s or Jihoon’s. 

Jisoo turned to Mingyu when he heard his name being called. “So, you used to live here but then moved to another country?” Mingyu asked.

Nodding, Jisoo started fidgeting with his fingers under the table. Seungcheol noticed but didn’t say anything, just observed at how strange it was for Jisoo to be nervous whenever someone asked him that question. “Yeah. I have family in California so I stayed there for most of high school and then completed my degree there.”

“Oh, California,” Mingyu’s eyes widened. “Wow, that’s cool. I’ve always wanted to go to California.” Seungcheol joked how he wanted to tag along, causing the three of them to laugh.

Jisoo and Mingyu continued to talk as Seungcheol began to zone them out as he entered his own realm of thoughts. Truthfully, Seungcheol wasn’t kidding when he said he wanted to go to California because that meant he could meet Jisoo’s family. He was just so madly into Jisoo. It was as if he could hear a beautiful chorus of stringed instruments and a choir just singing soothingly and angelic whenever he saw Jisoo’s smile. 

Seungcheol phased out of it when Jisoo called out his name, with his own angelic voice. “Babe,” Jisoo repeated. He smiled when Seungcheol turned all his attention to him after coming down from Cloud Nine. “I said I have a meeting with my manager and a producer soon and I have to leave right now. Mingyu said he'll walk you back since you live together. Is that alright with you?”

Pouting a bit, Seungcheol tilted his head. “I thought it was this evening.”

“My manager called and said the producer changed it last minute.” Jisoo sighed annoyed as he stood up. He collected the used napkins and placed it into his empty cup with the small side dish underneath and walked it over to the trash can and dishes bin. He walked back and pouted to see Seungcheol looking at him like a lost puppy before he kissed his cheek. “I’ll call you when the meeting is over, okay?” 

Seungcheol sighed internally, realizing he couldn’t object to this since it was Jisoo’s livelihood. “Okay.” He forced a smile as he watched Jisoo pat Mingyu’s back as a farewell and Mingyu offered a small bow as he was sipping his coffee and said they should hang out again. Seungcheol kept his eyes on Jisoo before he left the cafe and he turned back to Mingyu who looked at him happily. “Ah…” Seungcheol blushed.

“Don’t worry, Hyung,” Mingyu smiled as he shook his head, “I think your relationship with Jisoo Hyung is really cute.” He observed as Seungcheol smiled shyly before he took a sip from his cup, not realizing that he had already finished it a few moments ago before Jisoo left. Mingyu laughed, “I guess you two just started dating?”

“Uh,” Seungcheol rubbed the back of his neck, “I guess you could say that. It’s been a couple of weeks. I think a little over a month.” He stretched a bit before blinking at Mingyu. “Oh… shoot, if I’m keeping you away from anything, I’m sorry. I realize how this is probably awkward sitting with your neighbor that you just met…”

“Actually, this is like the third time this has happened,” Mingyu admitted. Seungcheol looked up before his eyes widened, realizing it’s happened to him just as much. Mingyu saw the gaze and snickered, “Oh, has this happened to you too, Hyung?” He sighed and leaned back in his seat. “Hansol and Wonwoo?”

“Shit!” Seungcheol gasped. “Yeah, I met them too.”

“Hm, then maybe we were meant to meet each other too. Maybe we were all meant to meet, just at different times,” Mingyu concluded. “Ah, I didn’t mean to sound that deep but… I guess that’s how it all played out, huh?”

Seungcheol nodded, Mingyu sighed in content that this was neither awkward nor strange for either of them. “So… does that mean you like music a lot, too?”

“Oh, I was waiting for you to bring that up!” They both laughed as Mingyu sat up straight to roll his shoulders back. “I actually haven’t talked to Wonwoo that much about music… did you talk about it with him? All I know is that Hansol knows a lot about musical instruments and probably a bit of music theory.”

“Wonwoo,” Seungcheol hummed, “I ran into him in the laundry room on my floor and we ended up bonding over the same song.” He pulled out his phone and quickly searched for the song. Rotating his phone to show Mingyu, he smiled. “It was this song. I don’t really get to talk to people about lo-fi music, so it was nice talking to him about it.” Seungcheol took his phone back and locked it. He quickly tapped it though so he could get a glance as Jisoo as his lockscreen. “I bumped into Hansol on the train and he accidentally blasted his music before he could plug in his earphones.” The two of them chuckled. “He said he’s an English major, so I’m surprised he knows a lot about music.”

“Oh, but that would explain why he writes so many things down.” Mingyu nodded. “Ah, I’m guessing you didn’t hang out with him enough to see it but I bumped into Hansol at the new coffee shop near us and he kept writing things down on napkins and stuffing them into his pocket. Guess he has a creative mind.”

Seungcheol nodded back before smiling. “Well, I guess I can extend the invitation to you too: you’re welcome to come to my place on the fifth floor to jam or listen to music some time. In fact, maybe the four of us should arrange a hang out. We haven’t had the chance to meet all at once, huh?”

“We haven’t, but I think that’d be nice,” Mingyu grinned back. They continued to talk to get to know each other’s lives, occupation, favourite genre of music, etc. Mingyu kept noticing that Seungcheol kept glancing down at his phone every now and then even though he didn’t have any messages coming through. He assumed that Seungcheol was waiting for Jisoo to text him, despite being in his meeting. Mingyu brushed the train of thought off though, it wasn’t his territory to judge or make any assumptions, especially since he had just met Jisoo and Seungcheol. (But from the looks of it, he saw how Seungcheol seemed to tug a bit more in the relationship than Jisoo does.)

“Mingyu,” Seungcheol snapped his fingers in front of Mingyu’s face to gain his attention. Mingyu blinked after being so into his thoughts and noticed that the older one snickered. “Your phones been going off. I think the caller ID says ‘Wonwoo,’” he mentioned. 

Quickly, Mingyu fumbled to grab his phone and answer it, putting it to his left ear. He cleared his throat as he heard cars driving and people talking in the background. He assumed Wonwoo was walking around outside. “Hello?”

“I got the job,” Wonwoo declared proudly. 

Mingyu gasped and grinned, practically in disbelief. “W-what?”

Wonwoo reiterated what he said. From the tone of his voice, Mingyu could almost hear the smile on Wonwoo’s face. “I start next Monday.” 

“Oh, that’s great!” Mingyu smiled. 

“Let’s celebrate. It’s thanks to your recommendation that your boss really wanted me on your team.”

Mingyu was about to humbly accept the invitation when he looked over at Seungcheol and blinked. “Hey, actually, do you know Seungcheol Hyung?”

“Huh?” Wonwoo blinked as he pressed the crosswalk button. He stood at the sidewalk with other people waiting for the light to turn red so they may cross. “Is that the guy who lives on the fifth floor?”

“That’s the one.”

“Yeah, I met him in the laundry room… Why, did you meet him too?”

“Just now, actually—”

“Hey, Wonwoo,” Seungcheol interjected, waving at the phone as Mingyu pulled it away from his ear for Seungcheol to talk to from a shorter distance. 

“Oh, Hyung—” Wonwoo blinked. He snickered as he started walking across the street. “Hyung, I got the job I had an interview for just now. Come celebrate with me and Mingyu. Invite your friends too.”

Seungcheol grinned proudly. It was a wide and almost fatherly grin, as if Seungcheol had known Wonwoo for years as opposed to the reality of only a few weeks. “Oh, okay. I’ll ask my boyfriend if he can come along.”

“Hey, maybe we can invite Hansol too,” Mingyu added after he put the phone on the table so him and Seungcheol were at equal distance to the phone. They were talking down to it somewhat loudly, but luckily the cafe wasn’t too crowded so they didn’t gain too much attention. (Though, the cashier was watching them judgmentally while she was standing behind the cash register drowsily.)

“I don’t have Hansol’s number,” Wonwoo admitted. “But if either of you could do it, that’d be great.” Mingyu immediately went to his text messages and typed out a quick message to Hansol as Seungcheol was unknowingly doing the same thing. Wonwoo yawned and rubbed his eyes. “Let’s try to do it tomorrow? Or maybe on Friday? What works best for you guys?”

“I’m free after five,” Seungcheol replied after he sent the message to Hansol before putting his phone screen face down, looking at Mingyu’s phone as Wonwoo was still on speaker. Mingyu said he was free at the same time as he finished sending his own message to Hansol. He snickered, realizing that Hansol was going to get two simultaneous messages with the same question. “Regardless of the date, let’s all meet in the lobby? I think that’d be easier for us.”

“That sounds good,” Mingyu nodded. “That good for you, Wonwoo?”

“Sounds good to me,” Wonwoo hummed as he made his way back to the apartment. “We should really include Hansol in this conversation though,” he chuckled. “Actually, maybe we should make a group chat… or am I thinking too ahead of myself?”

“Let’s try to meet up first because if we end up hating each other, the group chat will be awkward,” Seungcheol chuckled. Mingyu and Wonwoo laughed at the reply. Though they were still waiting on Hansol’s reply to the whole celebration, the three of them could already tell that none of them dislike or even felt uncomfortable with each other. It was a rare feeling and coincidence to run into people that not only lived in the same building, but also people that had the same love of music. Not only a love of music, but a deeper understanding that not even their closest friends understood. 

 

——

 

**I+II+III.**

 

“You seem more excited than me about this,” Wonwoo joked as he watched Soonyoung shuffle around their apartment floor trying to get ready for the night out. He was so concentrated that he couldn’t even hear Wonwoo’s sarcastic comments as Soonyoung swiftly moved on his feet. Wonwoo rolled his eyes as he grabbed his own nice pair of shoes from his shoe rack and started tying them as was seated on the couch. He laughed to himself as he heard Soonyoung whine aloud at how distraught he still looked in his outfit. “Gosh, you’re so picky,” Wonwoo sighed.

Soonyoung came rushing out a few minutes later and stood right in front of Wonwoo with his arms spread out for his friend to exam his outfit thoroughly. “Is this okay?” he asked, “Or does it make me look fat?”

Wonwoo looked over from his phone as he was slouching on the couch, causing Soonyoung to whine since he just ironed Wonwoo’s nice dress shirt. “Dude, stop casting your body insecurities out like that,” Wonwoo shook his head as he sat up straight. He motioned Soonyoung to turn around in a full circle and he nodded as he examined the entire outfit. “You look nice. See? That wasn’t so hard. Your first outfit was nice too.”

“So I should change back!” Soonyoung suggested.

“Fuck no, we’re going to be late,” Wonwoo stood up and threw a tissue that was in his pocket at his roommate’s face. Soonyoung screamed but caught the tissue and blinked as he saw Wonwoo walk over to the foyer and adjust the tie around his dress shirt collar. Soonyoung smiled, he knew Wonwoo was happy he finally had a job. Not only that, but he had other friends to celebrate the achievement with, it was going to be a special night. 

They left their place and went down the elevator to the lobby where they were to wait for the other guys to arrive. Wonwoo smiled when he saw Mingyu come out of the elevator with Seokmin and Minghao following behind. Him and Wonwoo shared a firm handshake, making Soonyoung tilt his head in confusion until Seokmin whispered how they try to keep a ‘professional’ status with each other during the weekdays. “That sounds dumb,” Soonyoung whispered back.

“It is,” Minghao joined in. “But, hey, at least they’re friends now,” he shrugged.

“Seungcheol Hyung said he’s coming with Jisoo Hyung from his place, so he’ll just meet us there. Hansol said something about finishing an assignment before meeting us there.”

“Ah, the college life,” Soonyoung sighed in reminiscence. “Good times…” He squealed aloud when Wonwoo poked his sides, causing him to blush and the other three to laugh before they excited the apartment and walked to the restaurant where they made reservations. Wonwoo formally introduced Soonyoung to Mingyu and smiled at how well they connected within a few minutes. 

Seokmin and Minghao observed everything from behind. “You know,” Minghao hummed as he kept his eyes on Mingyu, “this is only the second time he’s ever invited us out to eat.”

“Really?” Seokmin raised an eyebrow. “I hadn’t noticed. We always invite him to eat but he usually makes his lunch or eats at home. I thought it was just a health concern issue.”

Minghao shook his head. “I don’t think that’s the case. That one time he forgot his lunch and we said we’d eat at the place beneath the building, Mingyu settled for the vending machine food. I saw the wrappers in his trash can when we went back upstairs.”

Tilting his head, Seokmin pouted a bit. “Does he hate us?”

“No, I think it’s something else,” Minghao sighed. “It seems like it’s something much deeper.”

The two stopped talking when they noticed Wonwoo slide next to Minghao’s other side to formally introduce himself to them. They smiled and started mingling and talking about themselves to him, realizing that Wonwoo presented and carried himself well. Soonyoung and Mingyu continued to talk to each other as they were a few blocks away from the restaurant.

“So you suggested the restaurant?” Soonyoung asked.

Mingyu nodded. “Yeah. Wonwoo Hyung asked if I knew a good place that has barbeque and this place is nearby and the menu is pretty good. Not a bad price either.”

Soonyoung nodded. “I guess you know a lot about food then, huh?”

He stiffened a bit, but Mingyu nodded slowly as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Y-yeah… I used to own a bakery with my family.”

“Oh,” Soonyoung gasped, “that’s so cool! Ah, so that means you can cook and bake and stuff?” Mingyu nodded once more, still feeling the tension in his body. He grunted to himself, thankful that Soonyoung hadn’t noticed as he was too fascinated by Mingyu’s abilities. “That must be nice… Wonwoo and I only know the basics… we rarely cook in our kitchen.”

Mingyu tried to relax and put on a smile when Soonyoung looked up at him. He held the door open for everyone as they entered the restaurant before the hostess walked them over to their reserved table. Looking around, Wonwoo was in awe at how upscale the place seemed for such a simple thing as barbeque. Mingyu quickly pulled out the menu and nudged Wonwoo beside him. “Here, we can get Set B rather than Set A. It’s only a little bit more money, but it’s definitely worth it.”

Wonwoo looked up at Mingyu lost at his words but nodded. “I have no idea what is good or not until it’s cooked and in my mouth,” he admitted. The other guys snickered but nodded in agreement having no knowledge of the restaurant’s meat (or meat in general). They all looked over when the entrance door opened and Mingyu smiled and waved Seungcheol and Jisoo over as they walked in holding hands.

Jisoo let go of Seungcheol’s hand so he could properly go around and greet the guys. Seungcheol pouted but smiled when Wonwoo went up to him. “Glad you could make it, Hyung.” They made up a handshake on the spot and snickered at each other as Wonwoo patted Seungcheol’s back and motioned him to sit down. Jisoo grinned and patted the seat next to him. They sat down next to each other and Jisoo fixed the tie he was wearing to make it tighter before looking over at Seungcheol’s tie and adjusting the collar area to make it a bit looser.

Seokmin cooed along with Soonyoung. “Aw, that’s goals right there,” Seokmin sighed.

“He literally just fixed his tie,” Minghao commented, snickering when Seokmin whined and swatting Minghao away. 

Mingyu gave the order to the waiter that came over. The guys oohed in amazement at how knowledgeable Mingyu was, even suggesting which side dishes to get with the meat. The waiter nodded and turned on the stove in the middle of the table. Mingyu flinched at the sound and anxiously looked at the fire beneath the grill.

“Wow,” Soonyoung smiled, “it must be nice to have a friend who can cook for you, huh?”

“Actually,” Minghao hummed after putting his water down, “he’s never cooked for us.”

“Never?” 

“Never,” Seokmin nodded with Minghao.

Soonyoung pouted. It didn’t make sense that someone who could cook as well as Mingyu never cooked for his friends. He shrugged the idea off when Wonwoo introduced Seungcheol and Jisoo to him. He oohed in awe of Jisoo’s occupation as a musician.

“Wow,” Seungcheol snickered, “your roommate is certainly fascinated by Jisoo.”

“He’s literally fascinated by anyone,” Wonwoo rolled his eyes. “Seokmin told him he knows how to do impressions and Soonyoung was practically starstruck.” The two of them laughed.

The waiter came back with the meat platter before Mingyu gasped suddenly. “Can we see the drink menu?” he asked. The waiter nodded and put the plate down before going over to grab the menu. The rest of the guys blinked and Mingyu coughed. “Ah, well, it’s a celebration so we should drink, right?”

“Definitely!” Seungcheol cheered. “Hey, I’ll pay the tab too, okay? Don’t worry about the cost or anything, this night is for Wonwoo.”

Wonwoo smiled shyly, a bit of blush on his cheeks as he was flattered at his new friend’s offer. The other guys cheered and quickly scanned the drink menu when the waiter brought it by. He blinked at how fast the guys selected their drinks and asked another waiter to help him with the drink orders. Wonwoo smiled, shaking his hand at the drink offer and opting to drink water since there should be at least one sober person at the table. Even with Soonyoung’s persistence, Wonwoo just snickered and shook his head.

“Is it okay if I go all out then?” Soonyoung asked.

“Be my guest,” Wonwoo gestured. Soonyoung cheered and started pouring the shot glasses with peach soju. Seungcheol, Seokmin, Mingyu, and Minghao cheered along with Soonyoung as they clung the glasses together before taking it. Wonwoo blinked at Jisoo who smiled and drank his cup of water calmly before he made eye contact with Wonwoo. “You don’t want to, Hyung?”

Jisoo shook his head as he put his cup back on the table. “I don’t think it’d be good if you’d be the only sober one. They’re going to get drunk more easily too since they haven’t even eaten yet. Besides, I don’t really like liquor. I’m more of a wine guy.”

Smiling, Wonwoo nodded. He felt the same way. But he was happy to see the others enjoying their time being loud and carefree with the alcohol.

Even while a bit tipsy, the guys watched Mingyu cook the meat on the table like a professional chef. It was fascinating to watch for everyone, especially Mingyu’s friends. “I’ve never seen him cook before,” Seokmin whispered to Minghao, holding onto his shoulder when he felt the buzz kick in.

Minghao snickered and helped Seokmin sit straight up before looking over at Mingyu talk happily with Seungcheol and Jisoo. He smiled. “Yeah, this would be a first time for the both of us, huh? We’ve never really had dinner with him.”

“I think we should do it more often,” Seokmin suggested. “It’s nice. You can tell he likes cooking and food a lot.”

“He always denies our offer when we ask though.” Minghao thought for a moment before snapping his fingers and whispering his idea to Seokmin. “Let’s buy all the ingredients and bring it over to his place. I’m sure he’d like the idea. He probably doesn’t really have anyone to cook for.”

“Oh, that sounds great!” Seokmin cheered, gasping when Minghao covered his mouth to stop him from spoiling their surprise plan. Seokmin calmed down and pulled Minghao’s hand off of his mouth and smiled sincerely. “I think that’s a great idea.”

After Mingyu finished grilling the meat, the guys started eating. They all looked at each other with eyes wide open as they chewed and experienced the aroma and taste of the food. Mingyu smiled proudly, knowing that he not only did a good job but that everyone enjoyed the food. Wonwoo made eye contact with him and they smiled at each other, sending a nod that communicated how happy they were to be in one another’s company. 

Soonyoung cheered and asked Seungcheol if they could get another bottle of soju. Seungcheol snickered as he saw how red Soonyoung’s cheeks were from the alcohol settling in his body. “Did you not take Pepcid before coming here?”

“I didn’t know we were going to drink!” Soonyoung whined. “And besides, it’s too late now,” he sighed before giggling as he rubbed his cheeks. “Anyway, my red cheeks make me look all cuter, don’t you think, Hyung?”

Seungcheol laughed and patted Soonyoung’s back, making Soonyoung laugh along with him even though he had no idea why they were laughing. Seungcheol ordered another bottle for the table as the waiter passed by, making everyone cheer.

Jisoo moved beside Wonwoo so they could enjoy each other’s sober company. “So,” Jisoo hummed, “new job? That’s pretty amazing. Funny how it’s with your neighbor too.”

“I’ll say,” Wonwoo smiled as he poured another cup of water for Jisoo and himself. He sighed as he wiped his mouth from the grease before sipping his cup. “This would be my first job in… a long time. I can’t even remember the last time I got a big boy job.”

“I think any job that pays the bills is a big boy job,” Jisoo snickered. He placed his cup on the table and smiled as he observed Seungcheol enjoying himself. “This is nice though. We should have get-togethers like this more often. When do you think you’ll get a raise or promotion?” The two of them laughed. 

Wonwoo heard the entrance door open and he looked and saw Hansol walk in as he pulled off his headphones. The other guys saw and cheered as Hansol came. Hansol bowed politely and introduced himself to the unfamiliar faces before sitting next to Wonwoo who pulled up a chair between him and Soonyoung. “Glad you can be here,” Wonwoo smiled.

Hansol smiled. “Thank you, I'm glad I can be here too. Congrats again, Hyung.” He patted Wonwoo’s back and thanked Jisoo when he passed over a cup of water. “I would have come earlier, but, y'know, school…”

“That's understandable,” Wonwoo grinned. “The important thing is that you're here now.” Looking up, Wonwoo groaned and got up to run over to follow Soonyoung who kept stumbling as he tried to walk to the bathroom by himself. Jisoo and Hansol snickered before Jisoo got up from his seat to talk to Seungcheol.

Hansol sighed in relief. He wasn't the best when it came to meeting new people, nor did he particularly like drinking with people he had just met. He sipped his water and smiled when Mingyu passed over a plate of food. He started eating quietly with himself and his thoughts as he waited for Wonwoo to come back since the others were drunk already.

Truthfully, Hansol didn't have schoolwork to do. He had already finished his work for this week and was ahead for next week’s work. He was anxious at the idea of meeting new people. Hansol told Chan and Seungkwan about the celebration and encouraged him to attend since they were going to Jeju Island for a week. He didn't want to disappoint his friends, but the idea of meeting a chunk of new people was intimidating.

Still, Hansol wanted to get close to his apartment neighbors Wonwoo, Mingyu, and Seungcheol. He knew that going to this celebration was a solid first step to becoming closer to them. Hansol expected the drinking and loudness, but he was a university student so he was used to that. Contradicting his expectations, he didn't mind the alcohol or how extra friendly the guys were to him. It was new, but it was something Hansol was able to handle.

He sighed in relief when Wonwoo walked back to the table with Soonyoung. After sitting Soonyoung down, Wonwoo sat back next to Hansol and grinned. “Good?” he asked, pointing to the food.

Hansol nodded with his mouth food. He washed down the food with his water before talking to Mingyu. “Yeah, it's really good. Did you pick this place?”

“Mingyu did,” Wonwoo hummed as he pointed to Mingyu grilling other meat for the other drunks to eat. They snickered as they watched the others practically cheered on the meat being cooked. “He's quite the cook. We should do this more often, don't you think? Maybe just the neighbors next time. That way we can get closer.”

“Oh,” Hansol blinked before grinning with his cheeks full of food. “That'd be great, Hyung.”

Wonwoo patted Hansol’s back. He barely knew Hansol, but he could tell how socially anxious Hansol was as a person. He knew a less crowded social group was something he would like. 

The guys finished up their food as Seungcheol gave his card with the check to pay the bill after politely fighting over the bill between him, Mingyu, and Wonwoo. “Just let me do this as the eldest!” Seungcheol argued. The younger two surrendered, knowing that they'd have to respect their hyung’s wishes to be polite. They shared a gaze with each other and nodded, making a silent vow to pay the next time they went out.

They all started walking back to the apartment as Wonwoo offered his and Soonyoung’s place to hang out at afterwards. Jisoo and Seungcheol were supporting Soonyoung on either side as he was practically stumbling over thin air. Seokmin was supporting Mingyu and Hansol helped Minghao. (Though, Minghao and Mingyu weren't as drunk as Soonyoung.) The seven of them eventually made it to the apartment as Wonwoo held the leftovers and continued to hold the doors open for everyone.

They made it to the third floor and Soonyoung immediately jumped out of the elevator, causing Jisoo to squeal. Wonwoo calmly followed behind and looked at the guys. “This is normal,” he shrugged. “He’s a clumsy and fun drunk. He’s like that sober but to a lesser degree.” The guys laughed as they followed Wonwoo to his door which Soonyoung was leaning on while whining. Wonwoo unlocked and opened the door as he gripped the back of Soonyoung’s collar so that he wouldn’t stumble into the foyer. Seungcheol helped Wonwoo lead Soonyoung to the couch where he plopped down onto his stomach.

The other guys sat down in the living room. Wonwoo went to the linens closet and came back to throw a blanket over Soonyoung. Hansol and Jisoo noticed how delicate and patient Wonwoo was as he kept adjusting the blanket over his roommate who was whining and rolling around continuously. Hansol smiled as Jisoo snickered and whispered, “he’s really a good guy, huh?”

“Seems like that,” Hansol nodded.

“I barely know him… or you… or anyone here besides Seungcheol, really. But you guys seem like a good bunch.” Jisoo smiled when Hansol turned to him surprised, his ears turning red out of embarrassment. “Like you for example.”

“M-me?” Hansol blinked as he pointed to himself.

Jisoo snickered. “Yes, you. You seem like the type to not open up to people easily, yet you’ve let these guys into your world even though you just met them.”

Hansol rubbed the back of his neck shyly but smiled as he saw Wonwoo come back from the kitchen to bring out a few mugs of hot tea and hot water for the guys to sober up. Hansol sighed. “Yeah, that’s definitely me,” he confessed. “But, I don’t know,” he shrugged. “These guys seem… different. In a good way.”

“That’s good,” Jisoo nodded as he grabbed him and Hansol a mug. He smiled when Seungcheol moved form the floor next to Mingyu and Minghao to his side. Jisoo patted Seungcheol’s thigh and smiled at him before he turned back to Hansol. “It’s always good to have company you can trust.”

Jisoo turned to Seungcheol who yawned and snickered as they talked to each other and Hansol blinked and smiled down at his mug. He guess he could trust the guys enough.

“Oh, hey!” Seungcheol snapped his fingers after he put his mug down onto the coaster on the coffee table. Soonyoung whined before falling back asleep and snoring. The guys chuckled before looking back at Seungcheol. “You guys are welcome to stay at my place any time. Ah, you guys are too,” he said as he nodded over to Minghao and Seokmin.

Minghao smiled but shook his head to decline politely. “Thank you, but you guys have a better understanding of music compared to me and Seokmin.” Seokmin nodded in agreement as he sipped on his tea, oohing and asking Wonwoo about the flavour and where to purchase the same tea. He reached over and patted Mingyu’s back. Mingyu turned to Minghao before he smiled at him. “I think you’d enjoy your time with them,” Minghao hummed.

“Huh?”

“The guys. You. Music. I think you need a group of friends you can discuss music with. Since it means so much to you.”

Mingyu’s eyes. He didn’t realize that Minghao picked up on his love for music, but he was certainly glad he did. Mingyu smiled and nodded. “Thank you. I hope I get close to them.”

Hansol left to go back to his place on the second floor as Seungcheol and Jisoo bid everyone farewell to head back to Seungcheol’s place on the fifth floor. Wonwoo extended the offer for Mingyu, Minghao, and Seokmin to sleep over and stay in the living room. Minghao and Seokmin accepted the invite and smiled when Wonwoo went to get them blankets, pillows, and hoodies to sleep in. Mingyu would have slept at his own place, but he couldn’t risk the fact of letting his friends—especially his new friends—see how he hasn’t used his stove at all.

Wonwoo brought out his own blanket and pillow as well so he could spend time with everyone in the living room. After pushing the coffee table aside and placing blankets over the rug, the four of them huddled together to chit chat. 

“You’re a good host,” Seokmin smiled. “Thanks for this, Hyung.”

“It’s no problem,” Wonwoo grinned back. “You guys are welcome any time.”

“Hey, why don’t you invite us over like Wonwoo hyung?” Minghao joked as he nudged Mingyu. Mingyu stiffened before shaking it off quickly and forced a chuckle with a shrug. Seokmin yawned and rubbed his eyes as he rolled on the blankets. “By the way,” Minghao hummed, “is Soonyoung hyung going to be okay?”

“He’ll be fine,” Wonwoo nodded as he looked over at his roommate on the couch. “Just need to take care of him in the morning.” 

“You’re a good friend,” Mingyu yawned. Wonwoo blinked as he looked over at Minghao and Seokmin who already crashed on Mingyu’s other side. Mingyu rolled to his stomach and nudged Wonwoo beside him. “Soonyoung hyung seems like he can be a handful sometimes, especially when he’s drunk. But you take good care of him.”

Wonwoo smiled before looking down at his hands and fidgeted with his fingers shyly before he took a deep breath. “He’s the good friend,” he exhaled. “He’s let me live with him and paid for the apartment bills by himself ever since we moved here since it was so hard for me to get a job.” He looked over at Mingyu who had eyes full of curiosity. He laughed before yawning and covering his mouth. “Guess you’re wondering why it took me so long, huh? It’s a long story. I think we can save it for another time.”

“Okay, that’d be nice,” Mingyu smiled before yawning himself. He hummed. “You know, they say that if you pass the yawn to someone that means you’re close to them.” They both adjusted themselves on the blanket on the floor and faced the ceiling as they were lying down on their backs. “Guess that means we’re close.”

“Are you saying that figuratively? Because we are literally right next to each other on the floor of my apartment.” Wonwoo and Mingyu snickered quietly so they wouldn’t disturb the others. Wonwoo yawned again and stretched his arms before placing his hands under the back of his head on the pillow. “Hm, I guess the yawn is a sign we’ll be close?”

Mingyu nodded. He looked over and saw how Wonwoo was already fast asleep. He whistled at how quick that was. Looking around, Mingyu grinned to see how everyone around him was already asleep from such an exciting and thrilling night. He just befriended most of the people he met tonight, but he could already tell that they would all be friends in the long run, especially him, Wonwoo, Hansol, and Seungcheol. He wasn’t sure what it was, he wasn’t sure about the feeling he got from them. But the way they all had small conversations about something related to music, something related to the reason why Mingyu was able to overcome so many hardships ever since the bakery incident, it meant something to him. It hit a chord within him that has never been struck before.

Mingyu closes his eyes with a small smile on his face. He takes a soft breath before exhaling. He hopes that maybe Hansol and Seungcheol would also share a yawn with him. He hopes the four of them would share more times like this.

 

—

 

**I+II+IV.**

 

Hansol stood in front of Seungcheol’s apartment door and groaned to himself. “C’mon, Sol,” he mumbled, “you can do this. You’re pretty close to Hyung, already. You have nothing to fear.” He stepped back a bit and inhaled, choking a bit from realizing he inhaled too much. Whining to himself as he patted his chest to calm down, Hansol shook his head and patted his cheeks. He looked at the door handle with his right hand hovering over it. “Just open it,” he grunted. His mind was set, but his hands still would not budge.

To his surprise, Hansol squealed when Seungcheol opened the door. Seungcheol blinked as he saw Hansol jump back a bit before snickering. “Oh, you’re here earlier than I expected,” he hummed. He motioned Hansol to come in. Hansol bowed politely and took off his shoes as Seungcheol closed the door behind him. “I was cleaning up a bit before you guys showed up, so don’t mind the mess.” Looking around, Hansol pouted to see how Seungcheol’s apartment seemed tidier than his own place. 

“Guess I’m just a mess,” Hansol grumbled to himself. He followed Seungcheol to the living room and oohed at how many computer gadgets were on the desk by the screen doors leading to the deck outside. There were a lot of music equipment Hansol has never seen before, only heard about when he watched interviews or talk shows with various musicians. He walked up to the desk and scanned everything as Seungcheol was sweeping the floor.

Seungcheol noticed how Hansol seemed in awe of the equipment. He chuckled to himself before he focused on gathering the dust on the floor. “Those are mostly my friend’s,” Seungcheol admitted. “He’s a producer, but he sometimes works here. So I have a bit of experience with a few things.”

Hansol gasped in amazement as he looked over at Seungcheol. “Wow, you’re so cool, Hyung.”

With a humble yet cheeky smile, Seungcheol just shrugged. “It’s really my friend who’s the cool one. Hey, maybe we can visit him one of these days.” After cleaning the floor, Seungcheol put the broom and dustpan back in the closet before coming back to the living room to see Hansol was still looking at everything. “You know you can touch those.” Hansol gasped once more with wide eyes that twinkled and his hands clasped together as if he just met a childhood idol. Seungcheol snickered as he watched Hansol fiddle around with the mixer and pick up the numerous bass effect pedals. He couldn’t help but smile at how curious Hansol was when it came to the musical equipment. Seungcheol figured Hansol doesn’t have much experience when it came to the industry, much like Wonwoo and Mingyu, but the three of them seemed just as passionate so he figured he’d open that door of opportunity for them.

“Oh, Hyung,” Hansol looked up, blinking when he couldn’t find Seungcheol who was making coffee in the kitchen. Seungcheol looked over through the doorway opening that led to the kitchen. “Wonwoo hyung is coming in an hour, but Mingyu hyung said he has a lot of meetings today so he won’t be able to hang out until dinner time.”

“Oh, that’s fine,” Seungcheol smiled. “We’ll just make the most of it with the three of us. By the way, how do you like your coffee?” He laughed when Hansol gave him a puzzled look. “I’m making you coffee too.”

Hansol smiled, a bit flustered since nobody’s really ever done this for him before. (Whenever he went over to Chan and Seungkwan’s, they always let Hansol freely use their kitchen since he was so close to them and practically considered their place his second apartment from how often he visited. He figured since it was his first time at Seungcheol’s that this was something that friends do with each other when they don’t live with each other. Or maybe Seungcheol is just a really nice guy.) “Two sugars, two creams,” Hansol replied.

Seungcheol snickered as he nodded and went back to the coffee machine to make Hansol’s cup. He hummed while smiling to himself, realizing that they like their coffee the same way. He came out to the living room with two mugs of coffee, moving quickly as even the handle of the mugs were getting hot to the touch. Hansol saw and scrambled to get the coasters off of the side table to place on the coffee table in the middle for Seungcheol to place the mugs on. “Thank you,” Seungcheol sighed in relief. His hands were on his side when he saw how Hansol still kept to himself after he stopped touching the equipment. “Oh, please, have a seat,” Seungcheol offered as he motioned to the couch. Hansol bowed and sat down, scooting over the coaster on the table closest to him towards him. He lifted it up, blew on the mug, but put it back on the coaster when he realized it was still steaming. Seungcheol couldn’t help but smile at how adorable Hansol acted. “You don’t have to be so stiff,” he said as he sat down next to Hansol.

“Ah, sorry,” Hansol rubbed his hands on his washed jeans shyly. “I… I don’t really have a lot of friends, so coming to someone’s house is still new to me,” he admitted as his ears turned red out of embarrassment. He surprised himself with the fact that he admitted that to Seungcheol despite the fact they are still at an acquaintance-new friend phase.

“No, don’t worry, that’s understandable,” Seungcheol nodded as he finished taking his own sip of coffee. Hansol was shocked at how Seungcheol could handle it while it’s still steaming. “You know, it’s not bad to not have a lot of friends,” he sighed as he leaned back on the couch. “I think when you’re my age, you realize that you’d rather have a few close friends than a lot of detached friends.”

“Wow, that’s deep, Hyung,” Hansol blinked in awe.

Seungcheol laughed. “You sure are a curious one, huh?” He smiled when Hansol nodded before reaching over to take a sip of his mug, only to yelp when he burnt his tongue. “There’s no rush to finish your coffee,” he snickered. “Really. It’s just the two of us until Wonwoo shows up.” He stretched his arms in the air before spreading them over the back cushions of the couch. “So… how’s school?”

“How’s school?”

“Sorry, I’m not the best conversation starter,” Seungcheol admitted.

Hansol scratched his arm. Despite it seeming like a normal conversation starter, he’s never really had to ever answer that question as Chan and Seungkwan never asked him that on account that they all go to the same university. “Um, it’s good. I just write and read a lot since it’s part of my major.”

“English, right?”

“Y-yeah.” 

“Isn’t English a hard language?”

“Oh, definitely,” Hansol nodded enthusiastically, making Seungcheol giggle a bit. “But I’m half-American, so I’m fluent in it.”

“Oh!” Seungcheol exclaimed. He sat up straight to take a good look a Hansol. Hansol would usually turn the other way whenever someone looked at him since he looked  _ different  _ since it was so uncomfortable for him _ , _ but he didn’t feel stressed when Seungcheol did. “Hm, I guess I can see it. Which of your parents?”

“My mom.”

“So were you born here or in America?”

“My parents met in America,” Hansol explained as he turned his body towards Seungcheol. He moves his hands a lot when he speaks, so it was only fitting that he used his whole body to speak as well. “So they got married there and I was born there. In New York.”

“Is New York close to California?” Seungcheol asked. He blushed a bit when he saw Hansol snicker. “Sorry, Jisoo’s from California. I just had to ask.”

“It’s fine, Hyung,” Hansol smiled sincerely. “It’s actually on the other side of the country. I think it’s a much different place compared to New York. But, yeah,” he shrugged. “We moved to Korea when I was around five, and then we just stayed here.”

“Do you still speak English a lot at home?”

“My mom doesn’t speak Korean. So we only speak English at home.”

“That’s really cool,” Seungcheol blinked. Hansol turned to the older one shocked. Seungcheol smiled and nodded. “It’s really cool when you’re fluent with another language. And I’m sure your mom taught you a lot of words when you were growing up and a lot about American culture.”

“Y-yeah,” Hansol’s ears were turning a deeper shade of red. “I guess you can say that.”

From the looks of it, Seungcheol figured this was the first time Hansol has ever had this conversation with someone about his American side. He knew he would never truly know or understand how Hansol felt since his features and mindset wasn’t exactly like the homogeneous cultural and societal viewpoints, but Seungcheol believed it was what made Hansol unique, as a person but also as a writer and music lover. He wasn’t sure what else to say, but he smiled to Hansol. Hansol blinked, but he smiled back. No words were spoken, but it wasn’t an awkward silence. It was a silence of understanding, of an uncommunicated moment of, ‘I don’t know everything you go through, but I appreciate you for who and what you are.’

 

There was a knock on the door and Seungcheol stood up to get it, expecting it to be Wonwoo. And sure enough, Wonwoo smiled and waved when Seungcheol opened the door. Hansol saw as he was grabbing the empty coffee mugs and smiled over at Wonwoo before taking the cups to the kitchen to wash in the sink. “You’re here earlier than I expected,” Seungcheol hummed as he closed the door behind Wonwoo. “Is this a thing? Do younger people come earlier than they say they are?”

Wonwoo chuckled as he untied his shoes and placed them near Hansol’s shoes in the foyer. “I guess so,” Wonwoo shrugged. “It’s always good to be early, anyway, don’t you think, Hyung?”

“I feel convicted,” Seungcheol joked, Wonwoo joined in the laugher before Seungcheol motioned Wonwoo to walk to the living room. The two walked over and Wonwoo whistled at the music equipment by the desk area. Seungcheol snickered to see Wonwoo practically had the same reaction as Hansol.

“Isn’t it so cool?” Hansol gasped as he came back to the living room to pat Wonwoo’s back. “Hyung has a friend who’s a producer. He gets to use all of these neat things.”

“Oh my gosh,” Seungcheol laughed. “Hansol, I’m flattered, but I’m not nearly as talented as you put me out to be. My friend really just works on his songs here since he visits so often.”

“I think it’s still cool, Hyung,” Wonwoo hummed as he looked over the things. He turned his eyes to Seungcheol and smiled. “I’m sure you know how to use these things just as much as your friend, hm?”

Smiling bashfully, Seungcheol nodded. He walked over to turn on his computer monitor and driver. Hansol oohed in awe at how cool the keyboard and desktop driver lit up. Wonwoo blinked and moved around the desk. “Is this the latest model?”

Seungcheol blinked at Wonwoo, surprised that Wonwoo knew about his computer. “It’s from last year, actually. I saved up for it with my bonus from a few months ago. It’s not as great as this year’s model, but I think it looks better.”

“I’ll say,” Wonwoo whistled. “I’m going to have to save for a desktop. I only have the brand’s laptop from two years ago. It works great, but I know the desktop has more space, which will be enough storage for all the games I want to play.”

Seungcheol shot an immediate look at Wonwoo, full of wonder. “What do you play?”

With the monitor loaded with Seungcheol’s desktop screen, Wonwoo snickered and pointed to the game icon on the screen. “That exact one.” Seungcheol gasped excitedly as Wonwoo smiled wider. “What rank are you, Hyung?”

“Diamond,” Seungcheol smiled, trying to be humble over the high ranking. “You?”

“Masters,” Wonwoo smiled cheekily, realizing he was higher than Seungcheol. Hansol didn’t understand any aspect of the game they were talking about, but he laughed with Wonwoo when Seungcheol’s boastful smile disappeared into a shy blush. Hansol high-fived Wonwoo for that as Seungcheol opened the music program to the screen.

Hansol and Wonwoo paused and looked at the screen in curiosity as Seungcheol opened a random file to show them. “This is a file my friend worked on last week. He transferred it to his external drive to bring back to his studio computer. I’m assuming he’s finished the final product by now.”

The younger two moved closer to the screen before Hansol looked at Seungcheol. “I don’t understand any of this, Hyung,” he admitted. “I’ve never played around with music programs before.” He blushed a bit when Seungcheol chuckled.

“Neither have I,” Wonwoo shook his head. “I’m not really good when it comes to making music. I guess there’s a whole other aspect of music we’ve never really had a taste of.” Hansol looked over at Wonwoo as Wonwoo caught the glance and blinked. “What?”

“You speak so well, Hyung,” Hansol blinked in awe. Hansol often caught himself in awe of his new friends more often than he expected.

“Oh, thank you,” Wonwoo smiled. “I read a lot during my unemployment life.” He turned over to Seungcheol and coughed. “Ah, if it’s not too much to ask, Hyung, do you think you can teach us a thing or two about this program? Maybe even ask your producer friend to show us?”

“I can take you two to his studio another day if you want,” Seungcheol nodded. Hansol and Wonwoo gasped in excitement as they started patting each other’s arms to calm each other down. Seungcheol didn’t realize how amazing anything of the music industry seemed as it was so mundane to him, but it did humble him to realize that despite how much he brushed off everything that Jihoon did within the music industry, Seungcheol still had much to learn in order to help the guys. 

 

As they were all watching tutorials together for the next few hours, Seungcheol realized just how thrilling it was to learn something more in depth with new friends who seemed just as interested as him. He looked over to see how Hansol and Wonwoo were writing notes in the notebooks they carried with them in their pockets. (Wonwoo and Hansol surprised each other with this fact as well, realizing that they weren’t the only person to write things down that they wanted to remember. Seungcheol kept a mental note to himself that he should probably pick that up as a habit as well if he wanted to look back at things he learned or heard.)

Nobody realized how much time has passed before Hansol’s stomach rumbled. Checking his phone, he gasped at how it was practically time to eat dinner already. 

“We can eat here,” Seungcheol suggested. “There’s a good Chinese restaurant that has a cheap take-out menu.” He stood up and walked over to pull the take-out menu out of a couple of papers that were hidden in a side table drawer before walking back to Hansol and Wonwoo. The younger two oohed and looked over the menu. “I would ask you two to get it though,” he yawned as he stretched. “I have to stay here just in case Mingyu comes here.”

“That’s fine with me,” Wonwoo nodded as he kept scanning the menu. “I just so happen to like evening walks.”

“Oh, me too!” Hansol smiled. The two of them high-fived as Seungcheol smiled at the sight. He hummed and said he’d eat whatever they’d order and Hansol and Wonwoo nodded. Hansol wrote the dishes down in his notebook as Wonwoo was calculating the price. Seungcheol pulled out his wallet and handed Wonwoo his credit card. The two gasped as they looked up at Seungcheol. “Hyung?” Hansol blinked.

“Please,” Seungcheol chuckled, “let me. I know I paid for the food the other night, but I like treating you guys. Just… don’t go using my card to buy other random shit.” Wonwoo laughed and nodded as he took Seungcheol’s credit card and slipped it into his wallet. 

The younger two left to head over to the restaurant as Seungcheol sighed at the silence that filled the air. At times like this, Seungcheol would usually play music from his phone to create a chill ambiance, but he pulled his phone out to dial Jisoo’s number.

“Hello?” Jisoo answered the phone. He smiled to himself when he heard Seungcheol’s voice. “Did you not have work today?”

“I worked overtime yesterday, so I only worked a bit this morning before I ate breakfast,” Seungcheol smiled, feeling the butterflies in his chest at the sound of Jisoo’s voice. “Hansol and Wonwoo came over today.”

“Oh, really? How was it? Mingyu couldn’t come today?”

“Mingyu’s coming later on in the evening. Hansol said he has a busy work schedule today. It’s been fun so far,” Seungcheol hummed as he sat down on his couch and leaned back comfortably with his feet resting on the coffee table, something he’d usually never do with company over. “I taught them to use that music program you and Jihoon use. They went out to grab dinner to bring back to the apartment. I gave them my card though.”

“That’s so sweet of you,” Jisoo hummed. “I’ve just been in the studio the whole day.” He rubbed the back of his neck and rolled back his shoulders. “I’ve been sitting in this chair practically the whole day.”

“Why don’t you come over for a break and eat dinner with me and the guys?” Seungcheol suggested. “Call it a day and just spend time with us.”

“You know I’d love to, but I can’t,” Jisoo sighed. “MD really wants me to finish recording and producing before I head back to my place. Besides, you live on the other side of the city, Cheol. By the time I get there, I’d have only a few minutes to hang out before I have to head back here.” Seungcheol pouted. Jisoo could tell by the silence on the other line that Seungcheol was upset with what he said. “We can spend time tomorrow,” Jisoo suggested. “And we’re talking on the phone right now. I can keep talking to you on the phone for as long as you want really.”

“But I want you physically here,” Seungcheol mumbled to himself as he pulled the phone away from his ear and covered the phone so that Jisoo wouldn’t hear. He hasn’t been able to see his boyfriend since the barbeque celebration, which was four days ago. He knew it seemed too soon to want to have physical affection with Jisoo almost everyday, especially since they were both busy and working adults, but Seungcheol really couldn’t help with how much he liked Jisoo. He put the phone back to his ear to hear Jisoo tuning his guitar and smiled to himself. “We can talk until the guys come back with dinner.”

“Okay,” Jisoo hummed at a sustained tone as he was tuning to his voice. He smiled when he heard Seungcheol on the other line. Even if it was just through the phone, Jisoo was glad to spend time with Seungcheol.

 

“The place looks really nice,” Hansol commented as him and Wonwoo made it to the Chinese restaurant. Wonwoo nodded in agreement as he held the door open for Hansol. There was a ringing noise of a bell as the door opened and Hansol entered. He bowed politely at the hostess before he pulled out his notebook and told her his to-go order. Wonwoo looked around at the place, seeing the neon sign reflecting through the window as it shed some light to the entrance. Looking inward, the place had a few tables of people eating dinner. The smell was practically intoxicating as both Hansol and Wonwoo could practically feel their mouths salivate from it. 

Wonwoo handed over Seungcheol’s card as the hostess scanned it before giving Wonwoo the receipt to sign. He hesitated as he gripped the pen in his right hand but just wrote his own signature on the dotted line before handing it back to the hostess who walked back to give the order to the kitchen. 

They sat down in the makeshift waiting area with three chairs that faced the dining area. Wonwoo tapped his foot on the tiled flooring and he scrunched his nose a bit. “Wow, there’s no music playing.”

Hansol looked over before tilting his ear and blinking in realization. “Oh, that is rather weird, huh? Or maybe we’re just so used to having music accompany us everywhere we go.”

“That could be it, actually,” Wonwoo nodded. He looked over at the customer copy of the receipt and he coughed. “Is it weird that I used my own signature instead of Hyung’s? I mean, it is his card after all.”

“You didn’t want to forge it?”

“That’s kind of illegal, Sol,” Wonwoo chuckled. He didn’t realize that he called Hansol a nickname, but Hansol did. Hansol smiled at the nickname though. Nobody’s ever given him a nickname besides his parents. Wonwoo looked up when he heard a familiar voice. He wasn’t sure why the voice from the kitchen sounded familiar, but it rang in his ears. He knew Soonyoung nor his new friends worked in a restaurant, so he was dumbfounded as to why this voice seemed so noticable.

It didn’t take long for the surrounding atmosphere to smell like their order. The guys sighed in awe at the smell as both of their stomachs growled practically simultaneously. Hansol stood up when he saw one of the cooks from the back walk over with two plastic bags with the food tucked into the food containers. He thanked the cook who nodded at him before turning to glance at Wonwoo who stood up from the chair.

“Wonwoo?” the cook blinked.

Wonwoo froze solid as he stood there and looked at the cook with the familiar voice. He blinked back, still unable to recognize the cook as Hansol stood in between them switching between both his friend and the cook. 

“Dude, it’s me, Jaemo,” the cook said as he took off the bandana around his head in hopes Wonwoo would recognize him. He ruffled his hair a bit to make him a bit more recognizable. “We went to high school together.” Wonwoo’s eyes widened at that sentence before Jaemo walked over and shook his hand as a proper introduction.

Wonwoo tried to shake off any intrusive thoughts as he shook his old friend’s hand. He smiled at Jaemo. “It’s been a while. I didn’t know you lived in the area.”

“I just moved here recently, actually. About two months ago?” Jaemo shrugged as he pulled his hand back to his sides before smiling. “I help my aunt and uncle at the restaurant to save up for my own place soon and maybe get another job too. You look well. What have you been up to?” he smiled.

“I got a new job at a company here,” Wonwoo replied. He tried to tug on Hansol’s sleeve to signal that he wanted to leave, but Hansol didn’t think anything of it as he blinked down and adjusted his sleeves lower to cover his wrist. “Finance department.”

“Wow,” Jaemo smiled. “That’s great. You were always a smart one, huh?” He chuckled and didn’t realize how Wonwoo’s eye was twitching at that remark either. Jaemo blinked when he heard his name and sighed as he tied his bandana around his forehead once more. “Duty calls. Maybe we can hang out some time, huh? You know where to find me.” He shook Wonwoo’s hand once more before heading back. 

Hansol and Wonwoo thanked the hostess before heading out of the restaurant and back to the apartment. “So you know the cook?”

“We went to school together,” Wonwoo answered in an apathetic tone. “I haven’t seen him since then, actually.” Hansol didn’t realize how fast Wonwoo was speed walking back to the apartment until he started huffing while trying to keep the same pace as Wonwoo.

“So he used to be your friend?” 

Wonwoo froze at the crosswalk after pressing the crossing button before slowly turning to Hansol. He took a deep breath and sighed. “Y-yeah,” he forced out. “Yeah we  _ were _ friends.” They crossed the street together and Wonwoo gave a smile—an apologetic one—to Hansol when he said it must be cool to run into an old friend. He felt that he lied to Hansol by saying they used to be friends because he knew Hansol thought that he meant they used to be friends back in the day, not that Wonwoo doesn’t consider Jaemo a friend anymore. He shook out of it though, he wasn’t sure if he would tell Hansol—or Mingyu or Seungcheol for that matter—about any of this, but tonight wasn’t one of those nights. He put the thought under the rug, hoping that it would not be noticable to his new friends.

 

Mingyu opened the door when Hansol and Wonwoo knocked on Seungcheol’s door. The two gasped and high-fived Mingyu as they entered the apartment. “Hyung is just working on something at his desk. Said we should try to record tonight to get a taste of what it’s like.”

“Oh, that’s so cool,” Hansol gasped excitedly. He placed the bag he was carrying on the coffee table as Wonwoo snickered behind and placed his bag next to it. Mingyu walked into the kitchen to grab utensils. “Are we just going to mess around?” Hansol asked as he sat down on the couch looking at Seungcheol—who was sitting in the computer chair with his back towards the guys—with hopeful eyes.

Seungcheol turned around in the chair and looked at Hansol with a serious look. “Do you think this is just a game, Sol?” Hansol blinked, yet again surprised at the cute nickname, but slowly shook his head before he saw Seungcheol break out into a smile and laugh. “I’m just joking. Yeah, we’d just mess around with it for a bit. I called Jihoon to ask about a few things and he said we could mess around with one of the old files he has on my computer.”

Wonwoo nodded and smiled when Mingyu sat down next to him on the couch and passed around the utensils. Seungcheol walked over to sit next to Hansol on the other couch as they all started passing around the food and eating it. The younger three hummed at how delicious the food was as Seungcheol smiled, knowing that they had the same taste in food. They continued to talk and eat with a few laughs in between before Seungcheol headed back to the desk and plugged in the mic stand that he pulled from the corner that the others hadn’t seemed to notice.

Wonwoo nudged Hansol who was sipping on his cola. “You good at freestyle?”

Hansol swallowed the carbonated beverage a bit too quickly which caused him to choke. He coughed and blinked at Wonwoo. “Um… I’ve never really tried—”

“Oh, don’t be so modest,” Mingyu chuckled. “I’ve heard you freestyle with your instrumental music before I knew you whenever we ran into each other on the elevator.” Hansol blushed and whined shyly when Seungcheol pulled him over towards the microphone. Mingyu and Wonwoo clapped from the couches as if they were the audience watching Hansol perform.

Seungcheol played the instrumental from the computer as he looked over at Hansol who was bobbing his head to the beat. Eventually, Hansol signaled Seungcheol to record and at the click of the button, Hansol started freestyling. The older three did not expect for Hansol to deliver so well, especially since it was unscripted, but it was much better than they had ever anticipated. Hansol pulled back after he rapped and whined shyly as Seungcheol stopped recording. The three of them clapped excitedly as Wonwoo stood up to ruffle Hansol’s hair. “Wow, a lyricist and now a rapper? We should have you sign up for a label.”

Hansol squealed and hid his face into Wonwoo’s shoulder. Wonwoo blinked at the sudden gesture but chuckled softly as he rubbed Hansol’s back. Seungcheol nodded. “Oh yeah, we should definitely actually record something. Hey, maybe we can even release a mixtape or something. I think that’d be cool.”

“Do you think we can actually do that, Hyung?” Mingyu gasped with enthusiasm. “Ah, would we all have to rap or something? The only thing I can wrap is food.” The other three snickered at such a pun, causing Mingyu to smile.

“That’s the type of humour we need when it comes to songwriting,” Seungcheol snapped his fingers as he pointed to Mingyu. “I think if we really work on it in our freetime, we could actually make something to publish. Hey, maybe we could even work with Jihoon and make a side thing out of it.”

“Whoa, let’s not get carried away,” Wonwoo laughed. Hansol pulled back and rubbed his cheeks, still a bit embarrassed from the positive feedback from his hyungs, but he smiled when Wonwoo patted his shoulder.  “Let’s start small. I know there’s a number of possibilities now, but let’s take it one step at a time.” Wonwoo smiled when the others agreed. He wasn’t sure if they caught onto it, but Wonwoo also meant that he hopes to take their exponentially growing friendship one step at a time as well.

 

—

 

**I+III+IV.**

 

It was a Saturday. Everyone was free to hang out omit Seungcheol on account he travelled via subway to spend the entire day with Jisoo. He informed the younger three about it but said he would try to make it back before the end of the day. Mingyu and Wonwoo were in Hansol’s apartment as they were waiting for the youngest one to get ready. Hansol planned on using the recording booth in the library on campus to continue messing around with lyrics and beats, something the four of them agreed upon would be a good first step to a mixtape.

Mingyu was helping Hansol clean around the living room as Wonwoo was washing the dishes left in the sink from yesterday.

“I’m sorry about this,” Hansol apologized shyly. “I don’t really have people come to my place…”

“Not even Chan and Seungkwan?” Mingyu asked.

Hansol shook his head as he straightened the pillow on his couch. He felt a bit embarrassed that his apartment was less furnished compared to Seungcheol’s place since he was only a student and didn’t have much money to buy nicer furniture. But even with the comparison, he liked his cozy and minimalist apartment. It wasn’t much, but it was his and a place he could call home.

“That’s fine,” Wonwoo said as he entered the living room after wiping his damp hands against his jeans. He snickered when Hansol whined again. He wasn’t sure if it was a habit Hansol had when it came to compliments or what not, but he thought it was rather a unique characteristic Hansol brought to the four of them. “You don’t seem like the type of student to hold parties at his pad anyway.”

Hansol grimaced. “I don’t even attend parties in general,” he admitted. “Ah, that probably makes me sound uncool, huh?”

“Not at all,” Mingyu smiled. “I wasn’t into the party scene myself when I was your age.”

“The only reason I went was because someone had to take care of Soonyoung’s drunk ass,” Wonwoo snickered. The other two laughed along as they finished cleaning. Hansol ran to his room to get his student ID card before he pulled on a hoodie over himself. He ruffled his hair as he lead Wonwoo and Mingyu out of his place, down the elevator, and to the subway.

They all scanned their transportation cards and walked down the stairs to the subway towards the university. Since it was the weekend, it shouldn’t be as busy on campus as Hansol was used to seeing. “The library might still have a good amount of students,” Hansol explained as they waited for the train, “since the library is open everyday.” The older two nodded, realizing that Hansol probably did this on weekends: go to the library when he couldn’t hang out with his other two friends. They concluded that Hansol was a very intelligent and diligent student.

Once the train came, they all boarded. Hansol pointed to their stop on the map on the wall as the other two nodded. Mingyu nudged Wonwoo and whispered. “He really has his own charm.” He pointed over to Hansol who was humming excitedly by the doorway as the train started moving. The train wasn’t full, so the guys were more spread out than usual. “He’s quirky and shy, but he’s really confident in music and writing.”

“It’s admirable,” Wonwoo whispered back. “Especially since he’s so young. It’s good to know he found something he’s passionate about at his age.” 

Mingyu blinked when that word came out of Wonwoo’s mouth.  _ Passionate _ . He sighed to himself, realizing that he wasn’t following his own passion nor was he following something he was chasing passionately. He had to shake the idea off though. It wasn’t time to mourn over his past, it was time to create and hope for the future.

They got off of the train at the stop Hansol stepped off of and followed him up the stairs. Wonwoo whistled at how close the university was to the train station, probably why Hansol liked the location of their apartment since it was accessible to all modes of transportation. They followed Hansol who was humming to himself without the earbuds in his ear. He was in a great mood, mostly because he was excited to show his new friends his university.

Wonwoo and Mingyu looked in awe at how nice Hansol’s university looked as they kept walking closer to the entrance. “This is a nice place,” Wonwoo whispered. “It almost looks like a SKY uni.” Mingyu nodded in agreement as they walked through the gates and walked the main path. Looking around, the guys noticed that there were still a few students on campus, probably because they were meeting up with friends or they had extracurricular organization events. Wonwoo kept seeing the clique circles that were gathered and sighed to himself, remembering how similar it was to his high school experience on account he wasn’t really involved in anything during his uni years.

Hansol held the library entrance door for them as the guys entered, whistled at how the two story library seemed sleeker and more high-tech than the city library was. (It was probably the nicest looking library they’ve ever seen period.) They watched as Hansol scanned his student card and motioned the guys to come through as the censor was green. They quickly ran through the gate as Mingyu blinked. “Is that allowed?”

“It’s allowed as long as you don’t get caught,” Hansol laughed as he slipped his student card back into his wallet. Wonwoo snickered and nudged Mingyu to not worry too much about it as they followed Hansol up the stairs. He led them to the recording booth directly in front of the stairs. “Ah, it’s kind of embarrassing since everyone can see you using it whenever they walk up the stairs, but I don’t really mind.”

Wonwoo held the door open for the guys to enter as Hansol fidgeted around with the computer on the desk. It was a small recording booth, only having two chairs, one microphone in the middle, and a single computer. Observing Hansol log into the computer with his student information, Wonwoo hummed. “So, I’m gonna guess you actually  _ do _ know a thing or two about recording?”

“Huh?” Hansol blinked as he looked up after logging in.

Mingyu snickered. “This isn’t your first time in the booth to record something for music, huh?”

Hansol blushed shyly as he turned back to the screen to open the music program. “I-I might have been here a few times.” The program opened up a folder with a number of files that were under Hansol’s student drive, causing the other two to laugh at Hansol’s little white lie. He blushed harder. “Okay, I’ve been here a lot. But Chan and Seungkwan don’t know that because I usually come here by myself when they’re in class and I finished my work.”

The older two chuckled. It was cute how Hansol was so deeply into the lyrical and musical processes that came into song making. Wonwoo took the other chair as Mingyu leaned against the wall as they both watched Hansol pull up a file that was dated a week ago. Hansol whined when they hummed simultaneously before he played it for them. Wonwoo oohed and nodded along to it as Mingyu watched the sound frequencies on the screen. He was in awe of how Hansol created this himself.

Pausing it, Hansol coughed and looked over at his hyung. “I sampled a few songs and just played with a regular drum beat.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t really have any lyrics for it though… maybe we can brainstorm something together?” Wonwoo and Mingyu both nodded. Mingyu knelt down on the floor and moved in between the two as the three of them pulled out notebooks from the backpacks they were carrying. 

They started with a topic that Wonwoo blurted out. “Maybe… springtime?” he suggested. “I think you can do a lot with the subject because it’s a time of blooming, regrowth, and developing.”

“Wow, that’s really deep, Hyung,” Mingyu smiled as he wrote the ideas on his notebook page. “Yeah, I think we can come up with something.” He scratched his cheek shyly though. “I’ve never really written anything before, so this is all new to me.”

“Oh, I can help, Hyung,” Hansol smiled as he looked up from his own notebook. “Just write anything that comes to your mind. It could just start with a couple of words and then you can string them together with verbs, adverbs, adjectives, other ideas.”

“Wow, you really are a genius writer,” Wonwoo smiled. Hansol’s ears turned red as he scrunched his nose. 

They all continued to write whatever came to their minds, as Hansol suggested. It wasn’t long before they all had a page worth of notes and ideas. They compared their writings to each other and Hansol circled what they liked in each notebook and opened his notebook to another page, saying that he’ll write something to mash them up into one sentence. Mingyu played the beat for Hansol and learned how to keep the audio on repeat so that Hansol could have it play in the background as he thought. Mingyu nodded to the music, as did Wonwoo, as they watched the youngest one write away.

So into their work, they were unaware at how much time has passed as Wonwoo grabbed his phone when it vibrated and realized how it was almost six in the evening when Seungcheol started calling. He exited the recording booth and answered the phone quietly (since they were still in the library). “Hello?” he whispered.

“Are you guys still there?” Seungcheol asked on the other line.

“Yeah, I can give you the address of the uni, but Hansol will have to let you in through the library gates since you’re required a student ID to get through.”

“Okay, yeah, I just passed the subway stop for our place.”

“Oh, just get off at the fifth one then,” Wonwoo explained softly as he crossed his arms and observed the surrounding second floor of the library to see there were a diminishing amount of students on account of how the sky was getting darker. “There are signs to make it to a university when you exit the station, that’s the school we’re at right now. Call me when you’re at the entrance of the library, I’ll go down with Hansol’s ID to get you.” Seungcheol agreed and the two hung up before Wonwoo stepped back into the recording booth.

Closing the door behind him, Wonwoo leaned against the back wall and Mingyu paused the music to ask a question. “Who was that?” Hansol looked up from his notebook as well.

“Seungcheol hyung,” Wonwoo answered. He turned to Hansol. “I gave him directions, but I’d need your ID to let him into the library when he calls me.” Hansol saluted at Wonwoo before going back to writing in his notebook. Wonwoo chuckled at how dedicated Hansol seemed with his work. He leaned over to Mingyu to whisper who started playing the audio once more. “He’s a really good kid.” Mingyu smiled and nodded in agreement.

It wasn’t long before Wonwoo got the call from Seungcheol. Hansol handed over his ID to Wonwoo before Wonwoo exited the booth, walked down the stairs, and waved at Seungcheol who was waiting by the gate. “This place is fancy!” Seungcheol exclaimed as he pointed at the library’s interior design. Wonwoo chuckled and nodded as he scanned the ID card and Seungcheol walked through the gates. “It even has a security gate! I wish I had that when we were in uni,” he joked. 

Wonwoo smiled before he noticed how different Seungcheol looked. As Seungcheol was taking off his jacket, Wonwoo saw how red Seungcheol’s eyes were, just as red as the time he saw Seungcheol ran into the elevator on their first encounter. “Hyung?” Wonwoo asked. Seungcheol looked up and made direct contact with Wonwoo. He didn’t want to intrude so he started with a simple question. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Seungcheol shrugged as he hugged his jacket between his chest and arms. “Why?”

“Y-your eyes…”

Seungcheol blinked before Wonwoo started leading him up the stairs. He rubbed his eyes and whispered. “I… I just got into a little argument with Jisoo before I came over, that’s all.”

Wonwoo glanced over as Seungcheol walked ahead of him to the recording booth where he greeted Mingyu and Hansol. He sighed to himself. “It wouldn’t be a little argument if you looked like you’ve been crying for hours,” he mumbled to himself. He shook his head as he re-entered the recording booth. He observed as Hansol showed Seungcheol the notebooks and played the demo audio.

“So, you mean to tell me you’ve recorded before and hustled us to thinking you had no idea what you were doing the other day?”

Hansol whined. “I don’t know what I’m doing still, to be honest!” He softened a bit as he saw the elder three laugh at his enthusiasm. “I really don’t though. I just came in here one day to play around since it was open. And I’ve been doing this ever since.”

“How long has it been?”

“I think since the start of last semester?”

“That’s a long time,” Seungcheol whistled.  “You might have to show us a thing or to, really.” Hansol gasped, puppy eyes full of enthusiasm and excitement.  He was excited because, at long last, he was finally able to share his passion about not only music and writing but also the process of both with three other friends he was growing closer to with every interaction. He knows the mixtape seems like a far stretch for the three of them, but Hansol is a hopeful one. Maybe if he can overcome his fear of people like this, he can overcome the obstacles to writing and producing an actual and official mixtape.

 

—

 

**II+III+IV.**

 

_ “Seungcheol,” Jisoo sighed. He had his hands on his hips as he was looking at the ground of his studio. Seungcheol stood in front of him with a clenched fist and a swirling mind of emotions and thoughts. Jisoo looked up as he ran his right hand through his hair to get a better glimpse at Seungcheol. He wanted to smile at him, but he was too frustrated at the moment. “I thought… I thought we were going to take things slow.” _

_ “We are taking things slow,” Seungcheol replied. He unclenched his fists and grumbled as he sat down in the studio chair in front of the mixer and recording booth. Looking at the clock on the wall behind Jisoo, he knew he wouldn’t make it back to the younger three any time soon despite how late it was becoming. “We are… taking things slow,” he reiterated. _

_ “Are we though?” Jisoo asked. He pulled up the other studio chair and rolled it closer to Seungcheol before sitting down in it. He tilted the left corner of his lip upward with an annoyed expression when he saw Seungcheol look away from him. “I’m right here, Cheol. I’m not over there.” He watched as Seungcheol slowly brought his gaze back to Jisoo who nodded. “Do you think we’re really taking this slow?” _

_ “I honestly do,” Seungcheol nodded. He leaned back in his chair and pulled his gaze away from Jisoo once again. He looked towards the ceiling as he twiddled his thumbs around each other on his lap. He knew this was improper etiquette for an argument, especially one with his boyfriend. But he hated confrontation.  _

_ Jisoo just so happened to be a confrontational person. “Cheol,” Jisoo spoke softly. He pouted when he realized he wasn’t going to win the eye contact back. It was frustrating to Jisoo that Seungcheol acted like this whenever he wanted to have a conversation about their relationship. “Cheol, you’re acting as if we’ve been dating for years on end already. We just started dating for a little bit over a month now.” While still sitting, he moved his feet to roll the chair closer to Seungcheol. He patted Seungcheol’s knee, which still didn’t get him the eye contact Jisoo wanted. “I like you a lot. I know that you like me just as much. We’re still in our honeymoon phase though, you and I both know that.” Jisoo tried to give a sympathetic smile when Seungcheol pouted and glanced to see Jisoo’s face. “I know you’d like to deepen our relationship, but I’d still like to get to know you first before we progress this further.” _

_ Seungcheol lifted his head up to look at Jisoo. Sighing, he pulled his back off of the chair and sat up straight, rolling his shoulders back to fix his posture. He looked down at the floor as his elbows leaned on his knees and his heels were bouncing on the floor. Taking a deep breath, he was silent before he looked back up at Jisoo, making direct eye contact. He hated eye contact during these type of conversations, but he knew Jisoo liked it. Seungcheol figured he could do that much for Jisoo right now. “I thought we knew each other well enough already.” _

_ “I’ve known you for a month,” Jisoo reminded him. “There is still so much to learn about each other. There’s a lot of things I haven’t told you yet, and I know there’s a lot you haven’t revealed to me yet either. And that’s normal.” Seungcheol broke eye contact to look back at the wall clock whose hands were moving way too slowly for Seungcheol’s liking. “Look, Cheol, I know you haven’t had the best relationships in the past. But this is like a new, clean slate. For the both of us.” _

_ Seungcheol pouted with his lower lip even lower than before, causing Jisoo to snicker a bit. Seungcheol smiled at the sound of Jisoo’s small laugh before he rubbed the back of his neck. “Okay, I’ll try not think ahead of myself.” Jisoo smiled and reached over for Seungcheol’s hand and patted it before lacing their fingers together. Seungcheol smiled down at their hands and squeezed his hand in Jisoo’s. He sighed to himself. “I should go now though. The boys are waiting for me.” _

_ “Oh?” Jisoo blinked before smiling excitedly. “You’re hanging out with them?” _

_ Standing up, Seungcheol nodded. He stretched his arms above his head before dropping them back down to his sides and grabbing the jacket off of the couch on the other side of the room. “Yeah, said something about going to Hansol’s uni to do something at the library? I think it was recording.” _

_ “That’s cute,” Jisoo cooed, causing Seungcheol to whine shyly. Jisoo snickered and grabbed Seungcheol’s hand to walk him out of the studio and down the stairs. The walls were too condensed for them to walk beside each other, so Jisoo walked in front as Seungcheol followed behind, with their hands still connecting them.  _

_ Once they reached the bottom of the stairs, Jisoo pecked Seungcheol’s cheek before Seungcheol smiled and put his jacket on. Seungcheol opened the door to the outside as they both squealed at the strong gust of wind that passed by. Jisoo stepped back into the building as he held the door open as he watched Seungcheol zip up his jacket.  _

_ “Text me when you get home tonight, okay?” Jisoo smiled. Seungcheol nodded before walking over to kiss Jisoo’s cheek. Jisoo giggled before waving and closing the door. He walked back up the stairs and Seungcheol sighed to himself. _

_ Seungcheol walked to the subway station nearby and scanned his card. Instead of calling the guys to ask where the university was, he decided to go back home first. Riding the subway back, Seungcheol had his earphones plugged in and hummed to the tunes that played into his ears. He should probably get something to eat before heading back home first since it was almost dinner time.  _

_ After getting off at his stop, Seungcheol walked straight to the convenience store. Opening the door, he was greeted by the cashier he usually sees. He mumbled to himself whether or not he was the only cashier who worked at the store. Seungcheol walked directly to the fridge section to decide on which boxed meal he should get and picked up the rice balls with kimchi. It wasn’t an extraordinary meal, but it was a meal. After picking up a cola, he walked over to the counter to hand over the items for the cashier to scan. _

_ Scanning the items, the cashier took Seungcheol’s card and slid it through the machine. Handing it back, he blinked at Seungcheol. “Are you okay?” _

_ Seungcheol pulled the earphones out of his ear as the cashier repeated his question. He blinked confused. “Yeah, I’m okay… why?” _

_ “Your eyes,” the cashier commented as he motioned on his own face a downward motion from his eyes down his cheek. Seungcheol was unable to comprehend what was happening until he gasped when a teardrop fell from his chin to the floor. Blinking a few times, he realized that he was crying. The cashier handed over the receipt and card back, along with a small plastic bag of tissues. “It’s on me,” the cashier replied. Seungcheol took the bag as well as the meal in the larger plastic bag before waving to the cashier. _

_ He rubbed his eyes as he walked back to the apartment, grunting how his vision was becoming blurry from how watery his eyes were becoming. “What the hell?” he mumbled to himself. Not wanting to cause a scene, he quickened his pace to the apartment and turned the other cheek when he passed by the concierge desk. Straight for the elevator, Seungcheol was thankful that it opened just in time. He entered and pressed the fifth floor button and sighed in relief that nobody else entered before the elevator closed. He continued to rub his eyes, annoyed that the tears kept falling. “Why am I crying?” _

_ Seungcheol exited the elevator and walked directly to his apartment, opening and closing the door once he was in. He went to the kitchen to drop the bag of food and tore open the tissue bag and began wiping his eyes and cheeks. Pulling out his phone, he paused when he realized what songs were playing.  _

_ “Shit,” he sighed to himself.  _

_ They were songs that brought memories before Jisoo. They were songs that accompanied him before he tried to have a shot at a relationship once again. Instead of pausing it, he pulled out the earphones and played the music allowed as he turned the volume up on his phone. He wasn’t sure why his body’s initial reaction was to start crying at the sound of the melodies filling the atmosphere in his apartment, but he continued to cry. It wasn’t the type of crying that made his heart beat violently, or his body tremble with a whimpering sound. Seungcheol just cried. The tears continued to flow though he felt neither sorrowful nor upset. He let it happen though, thinking how he was glad that he was in the comfort of his own apartment so that nobody would judge him for doing so. _

_ He warmed up the food, surprised at how long the list of songs that made him cry was as his eyes kept producing tears. Seungcheol kept wiping his face with the tissues the cashier gave him even after his food was done warming up in the microwave and he started eating it while leaning on the counter. He sighed to himself, before he gasped when his body suddenly jolted. Seungcheol looked back over at his phone and saw that  _ one song _ playing.  _

_ “Fuck,” he uttered out.  _

_ This song held history before the comforting songs. This song was  **her** song.  _

_ At the sound of the singer’s voice, Seungcheol’s eyes produced more tears more frequently and at a greater volume than a few minutes prior. He dropped the chopsticks in his hands and grasped tightly onto the edge of the counter, realizing how his body was shaking. “Fuck,” he repeated. He had no idea why his body reacted so immensely to a single melody, but suddenly his mind was filled with past arguments, past reasons he cried, past reasons why he relied so much on music to fill the void that was taking away from him.  _

_ For a good three minutes, Seungcheol felt as though he was dragged to the past, dragged to a time when he wasn’t with Jisoo; Wonwoo, Mingyu, or Hansol; back to a time when his friendship with Jihoon was on the verge of collapsing. At the end of the song, when the violins sustained note slowly disappeared, Seungcheol found himself sitting on the floor of his kitchen with his back against the fridge and his head nuzzled against the top of his knees as his legs were tucked into his chest. _

_ “What the fuck was that?” Seungcheol muttered to himself. In all his years of living, he had never experienced that before. He slowly stood up and went to get a glass of water to calm himself down as his body jolted randomly. Looking over at his phone, he walked over as he sipped the water and clenched his teeth. He realized that was the first time in a few years he heard that song. He rubbed his eyes before checking the time on his phone to see more than an hour has already passed by since he left Jisoo’s studio. He hissed in annoyance and put his food in the fridge and went to the bathroom to clean himself up before he went down to the subway to travel to Hansol’s uni to meet up with the three. He looked in the mirror and saw his eyes were still red and puffy. “I look terrible,” he whined. Seungcheol had no time to calm down to take care of his eyes and opted to just ignore it. Hopefully the guys wouldn’t notice and hopefully, even if they did, they wouldn’t ask. _

—

It was Sunday. The guys expected that they would have a full day to finally spend time with each other, but unfortunately, Wonwoo was on the other side of the river to have his own restful day. The guys didn’t blame him though, they knew after a full week of working at the new company that he needed some alone time. It was understandable. In the meantime, Seungcheol and Mingyu spent the day with Hansol at his apartment. 

Again, since Hansol wasn’t used to having people over, the older helped clean around the apartment, surprised at how unkempt it can become after only a week from their previous visit. They weren’t the type to judge though, they just wanted to help.

Hansol was organizing the plates and silverware into their correct drawers after drying them as Mingyu was washing the dirty ones in the sink. Seungcheol, after finished cleaning the clothes sprawled across the living room floor and back into Hansol’s closet neatly, was setting up his laptop with the music program so that they could start experimenting more with lyrics and beats. Hansol smiled when he peaked into the living room to see Seungcheol humming to himself in content. He looked over to glance at Mingyu, and blinked at how Mingyu kept eyeing his stove. Hansol looked at his stove, thinking that there must be something to clean, but it was clean as it has been untouched for a while now.

“I don’t really cook,” Hansol admitted, causing Mingyu to look at him as he was rinsing the plates. “You cook though, right Hyung?”

Mingyu blinked and nodded before focusing his concentration back at the sink. “Y-yeah,” he replied hesitantly. “I used to,” he muttered to himself.

“Used to?” Hansol whispered to himself as he heard Mingyu’s soft voice. He wasn’t the type to ask further questions, especially since he knew Mingyu had no intention of Hansol hearing his last remark. Hansol brushed it off before smiling when Mingyu finished washing the last set of dishes and helped Hansol dry everything with another dish towel.

After they finished cleaning, they walked into the living room and sat on either side of Seungcheol. Seungcheol grinned and looked at the two of them. “I think I made something worth hearing,” he admitted. “I made it a few days ago when I was at Jisoo’s studio.” The younger two oohed as Seungcheol played it after tapping the spacebar. Mingyu and Hansol started bobbing their heads to the melody as their feet were tapping the beat to internalize it in their system. Hansol kept making expressions when he heard a riff or a lick that was to his liking, causing Seungcheol to chuckle a bit. He loved how expressive Hansol was when it came to music. 

“That was good, Hyung,” Mingyu smiled. “How’d you do that?”

Seungcheol shrugged. “I honestly just played around with Jisoo’s keyboard and thought, ‘Oh, that sounded nice,’ and recorded myself playing,” he snickered.

“Do you know what chords you played?”

“Nope!” 

Mingyu laughed. “Okay, well, I’ll try to pick out the chords you played if you play the play button again.”

“Whoa, wait!” Hansol exclaimed. The older two blinked at him as Mingyu held his notebook and pen in his hand and tilted his head at Hansol who seemed more than amazed. “You can do that?”

“Do what?” Mingyu blinked.

“You know what chord is which just by hearing it?”

“Oh… yeah,” Mingyu nodded. “I used to be a Music major before I switched.”

“Okay, that’s really amazing, actually,” Seungcheol admitted. “Even I can’t do that. I don’t know chords at all, honestly.”

“Whoa, really?” Mingyu’s eyes widened.

“Wow,” Hansol gasped in excitement, “that means we have an actual musician in our presence.”

“Oh my gosh,” Mingyu chuckled as he was flattered at the compliment. “No, no, I just know a lot about theory and instruments, that’s all.”

“I’d still classify you as an actual musician,” Seungcheol replied. “You probably have more technical knowledge than either of us. Actually, does Wonwoo—”

“Hyung said he’s only good in terms of writing and listening,” Hansol added. He looked back at Mingyu, amazement still flooded his eyes as he looked at the older one. “Hyung, why’d you switch to a different major then if you’re so good at music?”

Mingyu sighed and placed the notebook and pen down in his lap. “Well, I needed something I knew would pay my bills. It’s unfortunate, but being an accountant makes it easy to find and stay with a company, compared to a musician. It’s more of a risk… Plus, I was put in a difficult situation after I didn’t work at the bakery anymore.”

“Oh,” Hansol blinked. “Wait, why’d you lose your job there? Doesn’t your family own it.” Mingyu blinked at the realization he exposed a part of his past that he didn’t want to talk about, especially with his new friends. 

Coughing, Mingyu just shook his head. “There was a fire,” he exhaled. “And it was difficult for my parents to pay for the damages and insurance, so I tried to get a job as soon as I could.”

The other two nodded in understanding. Mingyu sighed in relief that they didn’t ask further inquiry as Seungcheol played the music off of his laptop once again and Mingyu listened carefully as he started writing the chords that he heard. Seungcheol observed Mingyu, but kept his observation notes to himself. He saw how Mingyu was passionate about music and cooking, but somehow ended up abandoning both of them. Seungcheol understood the situation, but at the same time, he knew Mingyu still wanted to pick up what he left behind. 

Seungcheol looked over at Hansol who was writing his own thing, assumably ideas that would turn into lyrics as he heard the song as well. He knows Hansol isn’t the type to open up, especially since they had that discussion where Seungcheol realized Hansol had his own beliefs and opinions of a world in which he feared judgment upon himself. Hansol, as Seungcheol concluded, found that music was a place that was free of judgment where Hansol could just be himself.

He thought of Wonwoo as well: how difficult it was for him to not be employed for such a long time and feeling like a moocher off his own friend for living without paying a single bill and the only thing keeping him persevering through it all was music. He wasn’t sure of the whole situation though, Seungcheol hopes that Wonwoo would open up to him more about that in the coming days.

Even examining his own situation, Seungcheol sighed to himself, realizing that music was really a strong bonding force that brought them all together. Despite how little they reveal or talk about their past, they all had one, but music shadowed over that and gave them, in some sense, hope for their future and their lives.

—

Wonwoo gasped in amazement to himself when he travelled up the escalator to the second floor of the department store, surprised to see the entire floor displayed as a wide and expanded grocery store. He walked off the escalator and looked around, still in awe, as he grabbed a basket and pulled the earbud out of his ears. Truthfully, as boring as it sounded, Wonwoo heard about the big grocery store across the river and decided that he’d not only explore and walk around the surrounding area, but also buy his groceries at the popular store.

It didn’t sound too exciting, but Wonwoo was happy to finally use the money he earned from his new job to buy more groceries than normal. This was a big step from him since he usually did the shopping at the convenience store near their apartment. He felt like this was a step to bigger things, especially since Soonyoung was the one who usually bought their food from big grocery stores on the weekends when Wonwoo was unemployed. 

Even with how entranced he was, Wonwoo still pulled out the list of groceries he typed out on his phone. He scanned the aisles and walked passed each one of them before putting anything in his basket though. He wasn’t sure what it was about walking through a grocery store in the middle of a five-story department store by himself, but it presented itself as a whole new and surreal place. The background music added onto that feeling.

Wonwoo snickered at how the music selection was from the genre his parents would listen to, but he didn’t mind it. In fact, he was somewhat nostalgic to hear the genre again. It brought back memories of his childhood and growing up with his parents. He pulled out the notebook from his back pocket and the pen that accompanied it to make physical note to call his parents when he had the chance to. He hasn’t called them since he got the job, he figured he should update him about his new friends. It’s been a while since he’s mentioned anyone new in his life to his parents omit Soonyoung.

He started making his way through aisles and collecting the items on the grocery list. He clicked his tongue when he remembered Soonyoung wanted two cartons of almond milk as opposed to the usual one that was designated for Wonwoo. “I knew he’d start liking it,” he grumbled to himself as he walked towards the dairy section. He scanned the milks that were on display and blinked when he couldn’t find the almond milk. Wonwoo looked around for an employee who could help him and walked towards one that was restocking the eggs.

Walking over, he coughed to gain their attention. “Excuse me?” he asked. The employee turned around and blinked at Wonwoo. He wasn’t sure why she looked familiar, but the way her hair whipped around from her back to over her left shoulder, and the way her eyes had a small twinkle made Wonwoo’s brain spark a sense of familiarity. “Uh,” he continued, “do you guys have any almond milk?”

She smiled and nodded, leaving her station to walk Wonwoo over to the other side of the grocery store to, surprisingly, another refrigerated section. He knew it was weird to be amazed about a grocery store, but Wonwoo was certainly in awe of not only how big the store truly was, but mostly because of how many selections of almond milk they had. “Is that all you need help with, sir?” she asked.

Wonwoo blinked over at her after he pulled out of the hypnotic trance on how much almond milk the store had to offer before he nodded calmly. She smiled at him and walked back to her station. Wonwoo shook the brain spark off as he examined the different brands of milk. He knows it’s silly, but he was picky about the ingredients and pricing of products. (He knew it was a good consumer trait he had, though. If this was Soonyoung in his position, Soonyoung would have bought the carton with the prettiest colours—a trap, as Wonwoo liked to call it, that companies used to hypnotise customers to buying their product regardless of the quality.)

After getting everything on his list, Wonwoo continued to wander before he realized how late it was when he checked the time on his phone. Soonyoung was probably back at the apartment by now, but Wonwoo was the one with the food so he had to make it back before Soonyoung calls him and whines how he’s hungry. Wonwoo went in line and hummed to himself, seeing how neat the products on the shelves surrounding him were organized. Grocery stores were truly another world.

He paid his items off with his own card, feeling proud at that fact rather than paying with the cash that Soonyoung leaves for him, and grabbed his plastic bags before jumping when he heard the roaring thunder from outside. Wonwoo looked through the windows that overtook the walls of one side of the store and whined at how it was storming with strong winds, bright flashes of thunder, and a continuous thunder sound. He didn’t expect this and whined to himself before he felt someone tap the back of his shoulder. Turning around, he blinked at the fact the employee he ran into earlier was holding an umbrella to him, as if she was offering it to him.

“It’s on me,” she smiled. Wonwoo blinked and grinned as he took it with a gracious thank you. She tilted her head as she examined him before he left. “Wonwoo? Jeon Wonwoo?”

Wonwoo shot a look up at her immediately and almost dropped the groceries and the umbrella. Recollecting himself he realized why the gaze and the twinkle in her eye was so familiar. “S-Seyeon?”

“I knew I’d recognize that smile anywhere,” she grinned. Here she was, another one of Wonwoo’s high school ‘friends,’ right in front of him at this very moment. He couldn’t handle the fact that he kept running into people from high school, especially with the fact that they were all ex-friends who changed his life forever.

He coughed shyly and scratched his arm after placing the umbrella under his arm. “W-what are you doing here?” He realized what a dumb question that was with the fact that she was wearing the grocery store employee vest with a name tag clipped onto it.

“My parents own this place, actually. I’m assistant manager. What about you? What have you been up to?”

“Um…” he hummed, as he kept switching the balance of his body back and forth between his feet. “I work at a new company in the finance department.”

“Oh, that’s great,” she smiled. “You were always a smart one.” She looked over at the window before her buzzer against her belt buzzed. She sighed. “Guess we both have to go our separate ways now, huh? But hey, it was great to see you. Maybe you can come by again so we can have more of a chat?” She waved as she scurried to the back as she pulled out her walkie-talkie to talk to someone.

Wonwoo sighed and furrowed his eyebrows. He wasn’t sure why he kept running into people from such a long time ago, especially people he’d rather not deal with, but it was as if his past was chasing him. It was as if Wonwoo couldn’t escape the harsh realities that put him through hell and back during his upbringing. He opened the umbrella as he exited the building and shook his head as he looked up at the clouds. “Seems like it’s mocking me too,” he observed. He shook his head as he walked with his groceries handing on his wrist as he held the umbrella tightly. Wonwoo, as hopeful as he was with moving forward in life, seemed to have slowed down his pace in life so much that his past has caught up with him.

 

——

 

**I+II+III+IV.**

 

“You’re really good at writing,” Wonwoo spoke as he observed Hansol while writing in his own notebook. Hansol looked over, as if he was surprised by the fact that Wonwoo was sitting next to him (as if the four of them  _ didn’t _ plan to meet up on a Friday afternoon after Hansol’s scheduled exam). Wonwoo chuckled at Hansol’s shocked gaze as a sign that Hansol was truly in his own world whenever he was writing. He patted Hansol’s back and smiled.

Hansol, a bit flustered, smiled back shyly. “Thank you.” He looked down at the page and a half that he wrote out before clicking the pen and placing it behind his left ear. He handed it over to Wonwoo to look over. “I just like putting my thoughts down on paper,” Hansol admitted,  “even if they don’t make sense.”

“These make perfect sense, actually,” Wonwoo admitted as he read over the words, as if he was having a strangely intimate connection with Hansol’s mind and point of view. Seungcheol called out from the kitchen before heading out as he brought over the pot of ramen he was cooking on Hansol’s stovetop. The guys cheered and closed their notebooks and cleared the coffee table as Seungcheol placed the pot down. “Hyung,” Wonwoo hummed who was going back to the kitchen to get bowls and utensils, “you’ve got to read Hansol’s writing. I think it’d be a good subject for a song.” His gaze followed Seungcheol in and out of the kitchen.

“I’ll make sure to,” Seungcheol smiled. “By the way, when did Mingyu say he was coming?” He sat down on the floor right across from the younger two on the sofa and started taking the noodles out of the pot with his chopsticks. 

Hansol and Wonwoo followed after and Hansol shrugged. “Hyung said he had to do something related to work? I’m not sure… maybe a meeting or something.”

Wonwoo slurped his noodles and shrugged as well. “I’m not sure. When I asked if he wanted to walk home together he said something about talking to our boss?”

“Oh, maybe he’s getting a promotion!” Hansol exclaimed.

Seungcheol snickered after swallowing the food in his mouth and displayed a proud grin. “Guess that means we have another reason to go out and drink, huh?” Wonwoo laughed and cheered as Hansol blinked. Seungcheol noticed as he drank the soup from his bowl before getting more noodles from the pot. “Oh, you weren’t there from the beginning of Wonwoo’s celebration… do you drink, Sol?”

Taking a sip of his water, Hansol flooded his cheeks and blinked with the expression of a confused squirrel. The older two couldn’t help but laugh at the sight for how adorable Hansol looked at that moment. Hansol swallowed the water and tilted his head side-to-side as if he didn’t know how to answer the question. “Y-yes?”

“That was very hesitant,” Wonwoo called out.

“Well, I have,” Hansol coughed as he rubbed his thighs in a nervous motion before putting more soup in his individual bowl, “but it’s not like I will always go out of the way to drink. Does that make sense?”

“So, you drink during social situations?” Seungcheol asked as he reached over to the cola he had purchased before coming over to Hansol’s. He opened it and hummed in bliss at the sound of the can opening and the soft sound of the carbonation. “Like at parties or, I guess, whenever you go to a conference or something.”

“Uh… not really?” Hansol admitted with another shrug of indecision. “Like, if I was at a conference with a professor and I was offered alcohol, I wouldn’t necessarily accept it and drink it.” He whined at himself and scratched his nose with uncertainty. “I think there’s just something in me that doesn’t like alcohol culture.”

Wonwoo wasn’t sure why he was intrigued to hear what Hansol had to say about it, but he motioned Hansol with a head nod, a signal to explain his thoughts. 

“Okay,” Hansol sighed as he put both hands out in front of him. The older two chuckled because of how expressive the youngest one is whenever he explained things in depth. “There’s this stigma in society that to get closer to people, you have to drink with them.”

Seungcheol nodded. “I believe that. In fact, I quite like it. The fact that I’m drunk with someone and we’re both relaxed and can talk about anything, I feel a special bond with people whenever that happens. You do get closer with people when they drink.”

Hansol blinked. “Well, yeah, but at the same time—why must we limit ourselves talking to each other when we are our most vulnerable when drunk? What I don’t understand is why can’t we just talk to each other and share our feelings  _ without _ being in an intoxicated state?” He took another sip of his water when he felt his ears grow warmer. He took a big gulp before continuing. “And you really see this more prevalent in males and their colleagues or friends because there’s a social belief that men aren’t  _ sensitive _ and can’t share their feelings like females can.” Hansol paused when he saw the looks of his friends. He quickly looked down and mumbled how he was sorry for stretching the subject too far.

“No, you have a really good point,” Wonwoo nodded as he patted Hansol’s arm, a sign to the younger one not to be afraid of speaking his thoughts out. Hansol looked up at Wonwoo who gave him an encouraging smile. “I think that’s true, it’s a social construct that we have this idea of only wanting to talk to each other when we aren’t in the right state of mind.”

Seungcheol took a sip of his cola and sighed, somewhat in defeat. “Yeah, that’s a really good point, Sol.” He rubbed the back of his neck, kind of blushing at the fact he admitted to agreeing to the social construct.

“Don’t get me wrong, Hyung,” Hansol held a hand up as he looked to Seungcheol. “I’m not judging you for wanting to go out for a drink with your friends. You’re allowed to do so and have a good time with people you’re close to, I’m just saying that I wish that people—especially males—wouldn’t be so scared of sharing their feelings and thoughts when they’re sober.”

“You seem well versed in this idea of yours,” Wonwoo pointed out.

“I wrote a paper on it.” Hansol blushed a bit. “I compared drinking culture in the United States to Korea. It’s kind of funny how many similarities there are.”

“Do you still have the paper?” Seungcheol asked. Wonwoo and Hansol looked over at the eldest who blushed a bit as well. “I… I’d like to read it. If you don’t mind.”

“I’d like to too,” Wonwoo smiled. “It’d be good to get a new perspective on things.” 

Hansol gasped and nodded enthusiastically. This was the rare moment for him. He knows that Seungkwan and Chan are always there for him and he can talk to them about these things, but the response they give doesn’t compare to the response Wonwoo and Seungcheol just gave him. 

At the perfect moment, Mingyu knocked on the door. Hansol jumped up and walked over to open it and smiled when Mingyu stood there with a few envelopes in his hand. Mingyu slipped his shoes off and walked into the living room with Hansol trailing behind. “Did you just pick up your mail?” Hansol asked.

Mingyu nodded as he sat down on the floor next to Seungcheol and oohed at the pot of ramen in the middle. Wonwoo passed over the bowl and utensils and Mingyu served himself as Hansol sat back down next to Wonwoo. Mingyu nudged Seungcheol to open the letter on top of the mail pile that he rested on top of the coffee table. Seungcheol blinked but reached over and pulled the envelope towards him, blinking at the left corner’s address line. “This… company sounds so familiar.”

“Just open it,” Mingyu said as he chewed on the noodles. He hummed at how good they were after a long meeting at work he had just attended prior to coming back home. Seungcheol opted for using the stick of the spoon to use as a makeshift letter opening as he ripped the top of the envelope to pull out a letter. He unfolded it and read it to himself first before gasping.

Wonwoo and Hansol moved at the edge of the couch cushion. “What is it, Hyung?” Hansol asked.

“We have a studio now?” Seungcheol exclaimed in disbelief. Wonwoo and Hansol gasped as well before the three of them looked at Mingyu who was smiling happily while slurping his noodles before he choked when the soup went down the wrong tube. They all squealed and Hansol quickly handed over his bottle of water for Mingyu to chug.

After downing the rest of the bottle, Mingyu gasped and sighed in relief that he could breathe again. “So as I was going to say,” Mingyu smiled once again, “I’ve been talking to my boss a lot more in hopes that I could work overtime. And I used the extra money to put in a deposit for the music studio place that Jihoon Hyung recommended.” Seungcheol looked even more surprised at Mingyu who just hummed and nodded. “Yeah, it turns out Jihoon Hyung was one of our clients for our company, and—after a bit of e-mail address searching—I e-mailed Hyung telling our situation and asking if he had any idea of where we can rent a studio to actually record.”

Seungcheol rose an eyebrow at Mingyu. “You guys already met Jihoon once when he came to lunch with us a week or two ago, why didn’t you just ask him directly for his e-mail?”

“Hyung, don’t spoil the fun,” Mingyu whined, causing the other three to laugh. Mingyu continued. “Anyway, I wanted to keep it  _ professional _ anyway. Point is, we now have a music space to officially record and plan our mixtape. It’s kind of expensive, but I’m sure you guys wouldn’t mind pitching in.” Wonwoo and Seungcheol nodded in agreement to the idea before Mingyu saw the blank look on Hansol’s face. “Oh, Hansol. Don’t worry about trying to get a job, I know how you are with your studies. Just let your hyungs take care of everything,” he smiled.

“Are you sure?” Hansol pouted, a bit insecure at the fact that he wouldn’t be financially helping when it came to this mixtape plan.

Wonwoo nodded and rubbed Hansol’s back. “You do enough for us since you’re the one who comes up with a majority of the ideas. It’s fine, really. We don’t mind taking care of the money.” Hansol’s lips relaxed as he smiled a bit, causing Wonwoo to smile back.

Seungcheol grunted after reading the rest of the letter as he stretched. He handed over the letter for Wonwoo and Hansol to glance over. “You helped with our first step into this, Sol.” Hansol looked over. “We first got a taste of recording at your uni’s recording booth. I mean, despite the fact we were kicked out when the radio org said that they were the  _ sole _ owners of the booth and we had no reason for using it without their permission.” (Hansol chuckled a bit, remember how heated of an argument Seungcheol had with the radio organization’s president. Despite her small stature, she was fierce enough for Seungcheol to back down.) 

“And it’s not like working a bit harder and a bit longer at our jobs is a bad thing for us to pay more for the space,” Wonwoo added. “In fact, maybe it will give a bit more purpose to our jobs.”

Mingyu finished the soup in his bowl and sipped the water bottle Seungcheol passed him. He wasn’t sure why he felt some type of way when Wonwoo said that, but it changed his perspective. After all these years, he’s always told himself how his only passions and the only things he would passionately chase would include music and baking. It was at this moment that Mingyu realized that—yeah—accounting wasn’t something he would consider his dream job, but it could be a vessel he uses to help achieve his ultimate dream, his ultimate passion.

“You know what,” Seungcheol hummed as he stood up after collecting the empty bowls on the table, “I think this calls for a celebratory night out.” He laughed when Wonwoo blinked at him as if they  _ didn’t _ just talk about the drinking culture in the country. “No, no, we don’t have to drink until we’re stupidly drunk or anything, but we should celebrate this moment. As a milestone we reached. Something we’re working towards together.” The younger three looked at each other and smiled before nodding over at Seungcheol. “Do you know any place we should try, Mingyu?”

“I can look a few things up,” Mingyu nodded as he pulled out his phone and pulled out the restaurant reviews application. “When do you want to go? Also, what price range fits our budget?”

“Our?” Seungcheol blinked. “No, I’ll—”

“We’ll all chip in this time,” Wonwoo interrupted. Seungcheol looked over and saw Wonwoo smiling. “Really, Hyung. You paid for almost every time we ate together. Let’s take turns. Or at least let us help you pay.”

Seungcheol pouted but sighed when he saw the looks on the younger one’s faces. He knew offering to pay for everything was just an instinct he had developed, but he decided to step down from that habit and just let his friends help. He figured if he wanted to get on a deeper level with them, maybe Seungcheol should trust them in terms of money as well.

“Oh, here’s a casual place we can try,” Mingyu hummed. “It seems like an American place, actually. Shake shack?” 

Everyone blinked and jumped a bit when Hansol squealed excited before he covered his mouth. He blushed a deep rosy red after pulling his hands down and placing them in his lap as he coughed to calm himself down. “S-sorry. That place has really good food.”

“Have you been?”

Hansol nodded excitedly. “Yeah, a couple of times actually. It’s kind of expensive for burgers and fries, but I think it’s worth it. We should definitely go there.”

“Guess it’s just a casual night out with the boys, huh?” Wonwoo chuckled. “When would you guys like to, huh? We could do it tonight, actually if you all are up for it.”

Seungcheol shrugged and looked over at Mingyu’s phone to see the location. “Oh, it’s not too far away. And I’m kind of getting hungry now,” he admitted with a chuckle. The guys looked at each other and nodded, realizing that they were starting to be be hungry as well. They chuckled before cleaning up the living room. Mingyu offered to wash the dishes with Wonwoo who agreed to it as Hansol went to his room to get dressed. (He was currently still wearing his pajamas since he immediately changed the moment he came back to his place after being on campus earlier in the day.)

Resting on the couch—despite saying he could help with the dishes or clean the living room and the younger three telling him to just ‘chill’—Seungcheol was scrolling through his phone on his social media feed while waiting for the others. He continued to mindlessly scroll and like photos when he got a notification text from Jisoo asking if he was available to talk. Seungcheol sat up on the couch and turned back to look through the doorway to see Mingyu and Wonwoo chatting together. He looked back at his phone and stood up, walking to the bathroom down the corridor quietly as he entered, turned on the light, and locked the door behind him. Seungcheol called Jisoo’s number and crossed his arms against the chest, somewhat afraid of Jisoo’s sudden text.

“Hello?” Jisoo answered.

“Is everything okay?”

Jisoo paused for a second. “Uh- yeah? Why?”

“Well, you just asked if I can talk to you. You never want to talk unless it’s important.”

“I prefer talking face-to-face for this, Cheol,” Jisoo replied. “Are you busy?”

“I’m waiting for the guys to finish up before we go out for dinner.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” Jisoo smiled, relaxing the tension in his body. He felt Seungcheol held the same tension within his body as well. “Where are you guys headed?”

“I can cancel if you want to talk.”

“No, no, please,” Jisoo gasped. “Go have fun with the guys. This can wait. I assure you.”

Seungcheol pouted. “Are you sure?” He didn’t want to admit it aloud, but Seungcheol knew that if he had to wait until tomorrow to talk to Jisoo about whatever it is that he wants to discuss that he would be anxious throughout the whole time he spends with the boys and the rest of the night. 

There was a moment of silence before Jisoo sighed. “I don’t want to pull your time away from the guys. How about you just stay over tonight at my place and we can talk then. It’s Saturday tomorrow anyway.”

“Okay, that sounds fine,” Seungcheol nodded as he internally sighed in relief with the wave of anxiety passing him. They bid each other farewell before hanging up. Seungcheol looked down at Jisoo’s caller ID on his phone and sighed. “I should have said it,” he mumbled. He wasn’t sure why he was holding back to tell Jisoo how he liked him at a deeper degree, but Seungcheol was conflicted within himself. It’s been over two months—almost three months—since they started dating and he feels like it’s a safe checkpoint in their relationship to finally admit his deeper feelings to Jisoo. He shook the idea. Maybe he could tell Jisoo tonight.

He exited the bathroom and blinked as the three others were already standing by the foyer waiting for Seungcheol to come out of the bathroom. Mingyu looked up and smiled over. “Oh, you’re done. Did you have a nice piss?” Everyone laughed at Mingyu’s blunt question as Seungcheol just patted Mingyu’s back before they all headed out of Hansol’s place.

—

“Oh my gosh,” Seungcheol laughed as he slapped Mingyu’s back, a bit harder than he expected on account that Mingyu jolted and coughed a bit. He immediately passed over his water cup for Mingyu to sip, which he did, and sighed in relief when Mingyu started chewing normally again. “That’s what you get for spitting a little bit of food while talking,” he hummed. “You’re supposed to eat with your mouth closed.”

Mingyu pouted as he kept chewing before biting off another piece of the burger in his hands. “I can’t help it,” he uttered out while chewing, “it’s just so good and I have to talk while I’m experiencing the umami.”

“Umami?” Hansol blinked as he grabbed a couple of fries off his tray while looking at Mingyu.

Swallowing the food in his mouth—causing Seungcheol to nod in approval of his manners—Mingyu nodded. “It’s another word for the savoury taste in food,” he explained. “It’s a Japanese word that literally translates to ‘deliciousness.’ I’ve heard that scientists have categorized it as its own distinct taste though. It’s like… synergy with food.”

“Wow,” Wonwoo tilted his head, somewhat amazed at such a profound description of a newfound word. “That’s so deep.” He sipped his milkshake as him and Hansol almost simultaneously pulled out their phones to type out the new word they heard into the note section of their phones. Mingyu and Seungcheol snickered at how in sync the guys seemed. “You know a lot about food,” Wonwoo commented after locking his phone. Mingyu smiled proudly and nodded.

Hansol took a small bite of his burger but covered his mouth as he spoke to prevent food from flying out of his mouth. “But you said you  _ used _ to cook.” The older three looked at Hansol who shook his head as he swallowed his food. “I know that Hyung cooked at the meat restaurant during that celebration, but when we were at my place one day, he mentioned that he  _ used _ to cook.” Wonwoo and Seungcheol looked at Mingyu and Hansol nodded. “What do you mean by that, Hyung? Did you stop cooking? You mentioned something about a fire, right?”

Mingyu blinked and sighed, putting his burger down back on the tray and wiping his mouth with the napkin in his lap. “Y-yeah… I think cooking at the meat restaurant was the first time I have in a while. I think before that… I cooked maybe five years ago?” The guys all pulled back at the surprising statement. He looked over at Wonwoo, realizing that he was the only one not present when he told the other guys about the story. He shook his head. He figured there wasn’t any way to hide this from them anymore. “My grandma died in the fire,” he sighed.

The guys looked at him sympathetically. Seungcheol scooted closer to Mingyu to rub his back in a comforting manner. “Sorry to hear that,” Seungcheol said softly.

“I… I was out on a grocery run at the time it happened… she wanted me to get sugar from the grocery store since we had just ran out because someone forgot to restock the night before. So I ran out, I was kind of mad at her because it was a busy day and her tone when she spoke to the kitchen was a bit firmer than usual.” Mingyu shook his head, trying to hold back the tears, but Hansol reached over across the table to grab Mingyu’s hand and squeeze it, assuring him that it was okay to let it out. Mingyu took a deep breath. “I… I saw smoke in the air and followed it after buying the bag of sugar and started running when I realized it was coming from the bakery. The bakery was closed off as firefighters kept pushing the crowd back. I…” he sniffled, his voice a bit shaky. “I wanted to run in. I saw my mom and dad and the other employees out near the ambulance already but… I didn’t see my grandmother.”

“She was still inside?” Wonwoo asked softly. The guys all pouted when Mingyu slowly nodded.

“I rode the ambulance with her all the way to the hospital but… she was pronounced dead on arrival. T-the… the fumes… the chemicals from the smoke… her lungs at her age couldn’t handle it.” Mingyu couldn’t help the tears from falling off of his face. Seungcheol pulled the jacket by his other side and pulled the bag of tissues from the cashier out of his pocket. He pulled one and handed it to Mingyu who wiped his eyes and continued to breathe unevenly. Mingyu sat up straight and leaned back against the booth’s chair. He shook his head as he folded the tissue in his hands neatly. “I couldn’t bake after that. Not after… the guilt I felt for not being there when it happened.”

“We don’t have control over these things, Gyu,” Wonwoo spoke gently. “Don’t feel bad for something that was out of your control.”

Hansol and Seungcheol nodded. “It wasn’t your fault,” Hansol added. “Your grievances are enough proof how much you loved your grandma. I’m sure she wouldn’t be upset at you for not being there. You were just doing an errand for her.”

“I’m guessing it’s still hard to face a stove or flame in the kitchen though, huh?” Seungcheol asked. Mingyu looked over, his eyes still a bit watery, but he nodded. “I know it’s hard for you. But I think that it’s a good thing you let it out. It makes you… it makes you confront the past. That’s not an easy thing to do.” Mingyu tilted his head slightly, but nodded in understanding.

“That’s why music means a lot to you, right?” Wonwoo asked. Mingyu and Seungcheol looked over at Wonwoo. Seungcheol nodded. Wonwoo looked down and snickered. “I guess we all carry some baggage from our past, huh?”

“What happened to you, Hyung?” Hansol asked.

Wonwoo wiped his hands on the napkin on his tray before placing it back on as he finished chewing the fry in his mouth. “You know how it was hard for me to get a job for a really long time?” The three of them nodded. “It’s not because I wasn’t qualified. It was because of my record.”

“Your record?” Seungcheol blinked.

“My criminal record,” Wonwoo admitted. The other three gasped as Wonwoo sighed but nodded. “Y-yeah,” he rubbed the back of his neck. “It was from a really long time ago when I was young and naive, but I guess I really fucked up my future from it.” He looked up to see the guys with wide eyes and he shook his hands. “No, no, I didn’t murder anyone or anything of the sort.” The guys sighed in relief, causing Wonwoo to snicker a bit. “I was hanging with the wrong crowd,” he stated. “They did some things that were illegal for a couple of teenagers to do. I didn’t really have the best judgment at the time because, well, they were the only friends I had and I didn’t want them to leave me. So, I did some stupid things and ended up at the police station. They also said everything was my idea, which doubled my bail and made a mark on my record.”

“That’s terrible, Hyung,” Mingyu frowned. Seungcheol nodded. Hansol was silent at the realization of how Wonwoo also suffered from people whom he was close to backstabbing him and abandoning him.

Wonwoo nodded before taking one last sip of his drink before tossing it onto his tray, leaning back against the backrest as he crossed his arms. “Thankfully, my parents weren’t so harsh on me. They knew my situation. I worked hard to do well in school. I was alone though. It wasn’t really until uni that I found a true friend who I knew wouldn’t use or backstab me like that.”

“Soonyoung?” Seungcheol asked. He smiled when Wonwoo nodded.

“He can be annoying at times,” Wonwoo admitted, “but he’s done a lot for me. It was thanks to him that I had a companion other than music to accompany me.”

Hansol nodded. He turned to Wonwoo and patted Wonwoo’s shoulder. Wonwoo turned and saw the expression on Hansol’s face: full of sympathy and understanding. “I understand that.”

“Really?” Wonwoo blinked. “I thought you always had Seungkwan and Chan with you.”

“You’re also very smart and funny, Sol,” Seungcheol commented.

Mingyu nodded in agreement. “Who wouldn’t want to be friends with you?”

Hansol blushed while his ears also turned red. “T-thanks. B-but it wasn’t always easy for me.” He turned to Seungcheol. “I already told Hyung this, but I guess I didn’t say it in depth. But basically, the main thing to say is that it’s hard growing up in Korea, speaking Korean, but being half-Korean and yet people still look at me as if I’m a foreigner.” Hansol turned his head downward, looking at the empty tray in front of him. He sighed. “In primary school, I didn’t care that I was half-Korean, nor did a lot of my friends. But as I got older, people started treating me differently. It didn’t help that my thoughts are ‘kind of out there,’ compared to the usual societal expectations and ways of thinking.”

“But that’s what makes you unique,” Seungcheol said. He wasn’t sure why he felt so strongly for the guys, how he wanted to teach the people who have wronged them a lesson. He knew it wouldn’t be the answer, and he knew that it brought them to where they were now, but he couldn’t help but feel that they didn’t deserve any of this. Even considering his own past, he felt like it was nothing compared to theirs.  He smiled when Hansol smiled back at the compliment.

“I know that now,” Hansol sighed. “I’m very thankful for Seungkwan and Chan being there for me. But I realized I shouldn’t solely rely on them for everything I expect out of a friend, or people in general.” He looked and smiled when he saw their eyes on him. “That’s why I’m really grateful for you guys. It’s still in me… the fear of people… but, it’s just nice to know that there are people like you three out in the world.”

Wonwoo and Mingyu cooed, Wonwoo reached over and pinched Hansol’s cheek, causing Hansol to whine flustered. He certainly didn’t mind though. He knew it was somewhat odd, but he really didn’t mind being babied by the older three.

Seungcheol chuckled along with Mingyu at the sight before sighing. “I don’t know how you all do it, but I think it’s amazing. Especially how much music has helped you through it all.”

The three nodded before they turned to Seungcheol. “What about you, Hyung?” Mingyu gestured towards him.

“Me?”

“We all shared our traumatic pasts, it’s your turn,” Wonwoo said. It was a joke, they all knew that as the snickered. But Seungcheol sighed. It was only fair. He nodded.

“It’s relationships for me,” Seungcheol admitted. “I’m not the best with them.” He shook his head when the guys started saying how cute and sweet he was with Jisoo and how he was such a good boyfriend, but Seungcheol begged to differ. “No, I see my faults with Jisoo too. Don’t get me wrong, I try my best for him and I really want to be the best person I can be for him and myself. But… I’m not sure. I guess its my past haunting me too.”

“Did you have a bad relationship before?” Wonwoo asked.

Mingyu patted Seungcheol’s arm. “You don’t have to share too much with us, Hyung. You don’t have to share anything if it’s too hard for you.”

Seungcheol sighed. “I think… I think I should say it now. Or at least admit it to myself aloud.” He straightened his back as the guys scooted over the edge of their seats (out of interest and curiosity but also prepared to comfort their hyung if they need to). He crossed his arms and shook his head. “I don’t even know where to begin… but basically, I dated this one girl for a long time. I was probably still in my undergrad when we became official.” He looked up as he reminisced his memories. “I’ve had relationships end poorly for me before her, so I was scared of dating her… especially since she seemed so…  _ perfect. _ ”

“Nobody’s perfect, Hyung,” Hansol blurted out, squealing when Wonwoo nudged him. “Sorry, sorry!” he whined and apologized with a small bow. “It’s a habit for me to blurt things out like that.”

Seungcheol snickered and shook his head while waving his hand, “it’s fine, it’s fine. Really.” He chuckled a bit, realizing he now accepts what Hansol said as truth. “Anyway, I met her through Jihoon because she was a singer and he was a composing major. They worked a lot together and I hung out with Jihoon a lot too since we’ve been friends since high school.” He took a sip of his water to steady his heart rate which he realized was beating faster. Taking a deep breath, Seungcheol sighed before continuing. “We had a really nice relationship. But once we reached third year of undergrad, she had to study abroad.”

“Where’d she go?” Wonwoo asked.

“California,” Seungcheol replied. “But after that semester abroad, she decided to stay there until she had to graduate. She even arranged for her graduation to be abroad as well.”

“That’s pretty cool,” Mingyu commented.

Seungcheol sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I was really happy for her. The long distance was tough, but we managed to make it through until we graduated.” The guys saw Seungcheol’s smile disappear within seconds before he took a deep breath. “But she got a work visa and decided to work there as well. I knew she loved California, she always told me about it. She even sent songs to me and Jihoon about how much she loved it there. But…” he sighed as he shook his head. “I… I started pretending I was happy about our relationship when I started getting sadder and sadder because of the distance. And whenever she asked if I was okay of her staying, I kept saying how I was fine with it as long as we stayed strong with our love for each other.”

The guys pouted and looked at the eldest in concern. They hadn’t realized how much time had passed by since they arrived and it was started to get dark as more people filtered in and out. They didn’t seem to mind though. None of them have ever had the luxury of having someone to talk to—let alone three other people—about their pasts, something that they’ve always carried with them but never let out. 

“So what happened, Hyung?” Mingyu asked.

Hansol nodded. “Did you break up?” He whined when Wonwoo nudged him again. “Sorry! Sorry!”

Seungcheol chuckled a bit before he frowned to himself. “We didn’t break up. She just stopped talking to me. Altogether.” The guys looked at him surprised, in an expression of disbelief. “She was still singing though. She released her first official single a year since our last conversation. But the subject…” They could tell by the shortness of breath in his voice that Seungcheol had trouble letting his words out.

“You don’t have to tell us if you can’t, Hyung,” Mingyu rubbed his back.

“It was for her fiance,” Seungcheol let out, gripping his knees under the table tightly while squeezing his eyes shut. The guys blinked and Mingyu quickly reached over for the unclaimed cup of water for Seungcheol to drink to calm his system down. His eyes were watery and he kept sniffling. Hansol moved to the other side of the table to wipe his hyung’s eyes as Wonwoo tried to calm Seungcheol down by pulling his arm over the table and squeezing his hand. It took a few moments, but they managed to calm him down. Seungcheol took a deep breath and exhaled. The guys sighed in relief.

“Her fiance?”

“They’ve been dating in California since she got there,” Seungcheol admitted. “Y-you know… I’d be okay with it if she told me about them over the phone… o-or she asked for my consent. B-because I’m open to it! If she wanted to try polyamory, I would have given my consent. B-but… but she left me in the dust.”

“What about Jihoon hyung?” Hansol asked. “If she’s friends with Hyung, they must have had contact with each other.”

“She ghosted Jihoon too,” Seungcheol sighed. “Which really sucked because Jihoon said he’d be the producer to help publish her first single.”

“But Hyung knows that she did this to you, right?”

Seungcheol looked at the guys and shook his head. “N-no,” he confessed. “Jihoon thinks the guy I dated after her was the one that left me in the dust, and then he thinks that the girl after that was the one that ignored me until her wedding engagement announcement.”

Wonwoo blinked with wide eyes. “Jihoon doesn’t know? But he’s your best friend.”

“I don’t want him to think of her like that,” Seungcheol shook his head. “I… I know it’s not fair to me… but they were really good friends.”

Mingyu pouted. “I still think you should tell him, Hyung. And it’s not that it’s not fair to you, it’s not fair to Jihoon. He has the right to know the full story.”

“And he can probably comfort you better about this than we can since he actually knew her,” Hansol nodded. 

“I… Okay, I’ll try to tell him about it.” Seungcheol nodded in agreement. “But between her and my next ex… I refused to listen to music.” The guys gasped as Seungcheol blinked at them. “She’s a singer, and the genre she sings for is my favourite. It was the only way I could avoid her. But with the rest of my break-ups, I had music to console me.” He smiled a bit and started snickering. The guys looked at him as Seungcheol shook his head and wiped the tears streaming down his cheeks. “No, no, it’s just… here we are sharing our feelings without bringing out the beer. And… it feels pretty nice.” He sighed. “Guys, am I unlovable?”

Wonwoo thought Seungcheol was joking, but he could tell in the tone and expression that Seungcheol was asking a serious question. “I think you have a loving heart, Hyung.”

“Yeah, you’re very lovable,” Mingyu nodded. “You listened to all of our stories before we confessed it to each other and you didn’t judge us. You… you made us feel like we weren’t alone.” He smiled when Seungcheol cracked out a small smile back. “I think that’s a gift that is rare these days.”

“You held all of this in and still have the capacity to be so nice to people… and try romantic love again?” Hansol asked. He reached over and patted the back of Seungcheol’s hand. “You’re much stronger than you believe yourself to be.”

Seungcheol couldn’t help but get teary eyed again, but this time for a good reason. The guys squealed but Seungcheol shook his head in reassurance. “No, these are happy tears. For you guys. I know we’ve known each other for only a few months… but it feels like I’ve known you guys for all my life.” They all smiled and wiped their eyes to prevent themselves from crying as Seungcheol laughed. “H-hey, if I’m crying like this, then you guys can cry too!” he joked. He passed around the tissue from his pocket as they all wiped their faces.

Wonwoo sighed as he stuck the tissue to his face without holding it up, making the guys laugh. He pulled it off and smiled. “I’m glad we got to share that.”

“Me too,” Mingyu agreed. Hansol and Seungcheol nodded as well. 

They cleaned up their trays and made their way out of the place as they all walked back to the apartment. They all decided to walk back instead of using the subway (although, Hansol whined since he said he already felt sleepy and tired after eating all of that food). The guys discussed the plan with the studio and the mixtape, ultimately having the common goal of publishing a mixtape before the end of the year after Hansol’s fall semester exams during his third year of uni. It seemed far away, but they all knew it would come up before they knew it. They knew it’d be challenging, but they knew that they could do it with each other.

**Author's Note:**

> **Additional notes:**   
>  \- Each members’ individual experience with trauma is interpreted from their lines from the song “Trauma.” This fic was created from my own interpretation of the lyrics and the music video. It is realistic for someone with PTSD to live a normal life.    
>  \- I know I cannot blanty give out names, but I am thankful to everyone who has helped me with this piece of writing one way or another. I couldn't be more appreciative for your efforts. (Especially to the mods of this fest, thank you so much for your time and effort for everything.)   
>  \- Feel like I could add more? I'm adding an epilogue after reveals!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Art for Sidelines](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15575307) by [svtbigbang_mod](https://archiveofourown.org/users/svtbigbang_mod/pseuds/svtbigbang_mod)




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